Merge .net configuration files - c#

My application has 2 config files at the moment.
App.config
Custom.config
The App.config references the Custom.config via a custom section handler like below:
<configuration>
<configSections>
<section name="Custom" type="MyApp.CustomConfigSection, MyApp" />
</configSections>
<Custom configSource="Custom.config" />
</configuration>
The problem is the Custom.config file contains a single section with many elements. I'd like to split this out so some of the elements are in one file and some are in another.
e.g. Right now I have
'<Custom>
<Group1 ../>
<Group2 ../>
<Group3 ../>
</Custom>
I'd like to make 2 or more files like below.
'<Custom>
<Group1 ../>
</Custom>'
'<Custom>
<Group2 ../>
<Group3 ../>
</Custom>'
At the moment I call ConfigurationManager.GetSection("Custom") as MyCustomConfigSection. I then have a number of classes with various configuration attributes that are populated automatically by the .net configuration.
Is there a way to do this split or can you not split 1 section into multiple files?
Thanks in advance

Related

Problem calling a second .config for keys in C#

I need a second .config to manage alot of keys. I tried using
<configSections>
<section name="apiConnection" type="CustomConfig.apiConnectionSection, CustomConfig" />
</configSections>
<apiConnection configSource ="ApiConnection.config"/>
Where "ApiConnection.config" is my .config file to manage keys but this didn't work.
Then i tried the "file" property in appSettings.
<appSettings file="ApiConnection.config">
This didn't work either. I Tried with:
../ApiConnection.config
~/ApiConnection.config
But nothing...
Some ideas?
The program doesnt break, just not show me the keys when i try with the ConfigurationManager.
https://i.stack.imgur.com/6xHK2.png
<img src= https://i.stack.imgur.com/6xHK2.png/>
EDIT
My file is in root path (with web.config)
The file looks like
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<appSettings>
<add key="Secret" value="z8xyHkN3Eju2TS9u-4MXeI2AbZiuTsF7xYJcjIJ" />
<add key="Audience" value="keyforms"/>
</appSettings>
Ok I think I know what your problem is based on your last comment.
This code is creating a new configuration section called apiConnection.
<configSections>
<section name="apiConnection" type="CustomConfig.apiConnectionSection, CustomConfig" />
</configSections>
<apiConnection configSource ="ApiConnection.config"/>
This section's values will not be contained in app settings. So you won't be able to access it via
ConfigurationManager.AppSettings
You will need to access it in a different manner. Now the exact manner will depend on your implementation of CustomConfig.apiConnectionSection and CustomConfig. I would search your code to find the class that defines how this works.
This example shows how to pull values from a custom config section, SecureAppSettings that uses the NameValueCollection in the same manner as AppSettings. You will have to do some digging to figure out what Types you will need to utilize.
NameValueCollection section = (NameValueCollection)ConfigurationManager.GetSection("secureAppSettings");
string userName = section["userName"];

Extend an element in App.config

We have an app.config we are using with Carbonator:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<configSections>
<section name="carbonator" type="Crypton.Carbonator.Config.CarbonatorSection, Crypton.Carbonator"/>
</configSections>
<carbonator defaultCulture="en-US" logLevel="1" collectionInterval="1000" reportingInterval="1000" >
<statsd server="127.0.0.1" port="8125" />
<counters>
<add path="processor_information.pct_processor_time.total" category="Processor" counter="% Processor Time" instance="_Total" />
<add path="memory.available_MBytes" category="Memory" counter="Available MBytes" instance="" />
<add path="memory.pct_commited_bytes_in_use" category="Memory" counter="% Committed Bytes In Use" instance="" />
</counters>
</carbonator>
</configuration>
We want to allow users to configure their own custom counters in an external config file that we reference from the <counters> element. For example, we would like to allow the user config file to look like:
<add path="logical_disk.pct_free_space.C" category="LogicalDisk" counter="% Free Space" instance="C:" />
<add path="logical_disk.disk_read_bytes_per_sec.C" category="LogicalDisk" counter="Disk Read Bytes/sec" instance="C:" />
<add path="logical_disk.disk_write_bytes_per_sec.C" category="LogicalDisk" counter="Disk Write Bytes/sec" instance="C:" />
I don't even know if this is possible outside of an appConfig element, but any help is appreciated.
According to this answer it should be possible. Same way is also described in this article.
But I don't think it's a good idea for one reason - if a user makes a mistake in his configuration extension, it will prevent the application from executing since the application configuration became invalid.
I would rather use the configuration in the app.config file to provide default values and implement some user configuration myself. Is such case, you can use whatever configuration format you like, for example JSON, which would be also better (easier to create and edit) for users. In your application, you simply merge both configurations (app.config values are default values which will be overwritten by the user's configuration).

What level of complexity can a custom ConfigSection XML contain while using built-in Section Handler classes?

This example on MSDN shows how to implement a simple dictionary inside a custom App.config section:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa719887(v=vs.71).aspx
The XML looks like this, and it employs SingleTagSectionHandler:
<sampleSection setting1="Value1" setting2="value two"
setting3="third value" />
Is this the most complicated my custom XML section can be before I have to write my own config section class? Because I wish to have a section which is slightly more complex e.g:
<mySection>
<mappings>
<mapping name="A" val1="12" val2="32"/>
<mapping name="B" val1="2" val2="2"/>
</mappings>
<add name="URL" value="http://..."/>
</mySection>
Or something along those lines at least, the exact structure isn't rigid.
How far can I push the built-in section handlers? I couldn't see a good tutorial on what is actually provided in system.configuration.

How to deal with changed ConfigurationSection-Definition?

I have a Configuration-File that I read with the ConfigurationManager. There are some Sections that I defined by myself.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<configSections>
<section name="applicationWideSettingsSection" type="MyTestApp.ApplicationSettings.ApplicationWideSettingsSection, MyTestAssembly, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null" />
</configSections>
<applicationWideSettingsSection>
<pathToSomeFile value="C:\Users\..." />
</applicationWideSettingsSection>
</configuration>
There are new requirements: now I have to store another value in the applicationWideSettingsSection like this:
<applicationWideSettingsSection>
<pathToSomeFile value="C:\Users\..." />
<pathToSomeOtherFile value="C:\Programs\..." />
</applicationWideSettingsSection>
So I change my definition of the applicationWideSettingsSection. If I now run the application with an old config-File it throws an exception on this line:
var configSection = _config.GetSection("applicationWideSettingsSection");
because there is only the pathToSomeFile-Setting and the other one is missing.
Is there a way to manually add another (default value) to this section?
How would you deal with this??
Thanks in advance, Joerg
Because I didn't want to change my design away from my custom Setting-Types I found a different way:
I set the IsRequired to false so no exception is thrown when the setting is missing. If it's missing I set it to some value from code.
In a different approach I wanted to override some of the Configuration-Section methods but did not get it to work...
now I have to store another value in the applicationWideSettingsSection
Instead of your custom type ApplicationWideSettingsSection you can use a key-value pairs, so
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<configSections>
<section name="applicationWideSettingsSection"
type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler" />
</configSections>
<applicationWideSettingsSection>
<pathToSomeFile value="C:\Users\..." />
</applicationWideSettingsSection>
</configuration>
This will store 1 or many parameters and allow you to enumerate on the inner parameters. You can also try DictionarySectionHandler. I found sample code in this post.

Web.Config, external file for system.serviceModel

Using VS2010
I have the following in my web.config (detail removed).
<system.serviceModel>
<behaviors />
<services />
<serviceHostingEnvironment multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true"/>
<bindings />
<client />
</system.serviceModel>
I would like to use attribute configSource the same as appSettings can use to get the detail of these elements from another config file.
I have tried to apply configSource attribute to either system.serviceModel or to each of the sub nodes.
However, I get the invalid blue wavvy line saying:
The 'configSource' attribute is not allowed
I refer to the second answer (by Tom Brothers) in this question which demonstrates what I would like.
Can a web.config read from an external xml file?
Additional
Here is the configuration from that post. Has invalid blue wavvy lines.
<connectionStrings configSource="web\config\connectionStrings.config" />
<appSettings configSource="web\config\appSettings.config" />
<system.diagnostics configSource="web\config\diagnostics.config" />
<system.serviceModel>
<bindings configSource="web\config\serviceModelBindings.config" />
<behaviors configSource="web\config\serviceModelBehaviors.config" />
<services configSource="web\config\serviceModelServices.config" />
<client configSource="web\config\serviceModelClient.config" />
</system.serviceModel>
How can I use the configSource attibute in this case?
You cannot apply configSource= to <system.serviceModel> since that is a config section group - not a simple config section, and the configSource attribute is only available on simple configuration sections.
You should however absolutely be able to apply the configSource attribute to any of the nodes inside <system.serviceModel> - I do this all the time, in production systems - and it just works. Have you even really tried??
Or did you let yourself be scared off by Visual Studio... it might show you (and tell you) that configSource="...." is not allowed (by those wavy underlines) - but that's just a shortcoming in the Visual Studio editor - on the child nodes of <system.serviceModel>, it is allowed to have a configSource= attribute!
Can you show us (by editing your original question) what your e.g. serviceModelBehaviors.config looks like??
Also: is that file physically in the web\config subdirectory of your web application??

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