public function loadConfiguration()
    {
        if (!file_exists($this->path)) {
            return array();
        }
        
        if (!is_readable($this->path)) {
            throw new Exception('The file "' . $this->path . '" isn\'t readable!');
        }
        
        $content = file_get_contents($this->path);
        $settings = json_decode($content, true);

        if ($settings == false) {
            return array();
        }
        
        return $settings;
    }