I am using more than one projects in a solution, on e of them are real projects, others are helper projects. One of those helper projects, I have settings.settings file for storing database connection string. Now When I build/debug it. I don't see any file where I can change the connection string. Was it gone integrated in the helperproject's dll file? How can i resolve this os that i can change the connection string please?
The Settings class generated by the designer has "internal" access specifier by default.
So the application settings you've added will not be visible in the assembly that is referring the helper assembly.
To make it visible across the referring assemblies, make the class public manually or via the designer. See the snapshot.
After you've made it public, you can access it in other projects where this assembly is referred.
String connectionString = TestAssembly.Settings.Default.ConnectionString;
But it would be better to put the settings in a application configuration file specific to that application. In your case add an app.config to the main project; and add connectionStrings section in the config.
I think that you miss understood something. You should add at any project you want the app.config file (or web.config in case of web app / site).
Then via ConfigurationManager class you should access the data in it.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.configuration.configurationmanager.appsettings.aspx
The app.config is automatically copied once you run/compile your project and it will have a name as youreapp.exe.config or yourelib.dll.config.
For more details read here http://www.codeproject.com/KB/files/SaveConnStringInAppConfig.aspx
Hope this helps
Related
Hope you can help with this one, although so for here does seem to b a resolution.
I have a class library which connects to a SQL Server database using an EF context class with a connection string in the app.config file.
I then reference this dll in an ASP.NET app but have to add the connection sting again in the web.config file
I would have though by referencing the dll and thus the connection string, I would not require to add the connection string again.
Perhaps I am missing something or has anyone else found a resolution to this ?
The connection string is read from the executables app.config (i.e. windows forms/WPF/console applications). For web applications the connection string is taken from the web.config file of the startup project (i.e. where the global.aspx.cs) is located.
You cannot use the app.config from your model DLL directly. You have to put the connection strings in the "main" projects.
What might help is some kind of scripting, but that's up to you.
You could try to use the configSource attribute and configure and external file:
<ConnectionString configSource="shared.config" />
The content of the file replaces the content of the element though. Another thing is that you need to include the file in your web app project and toggle copy to output.
And another warning:
the external connection strings file must be in the same directory as
the root web.config file, so you'll have to take precautions to ensure
you don't check it into your source repository.
More about that and best practices about deploying sensitive data can be found here:
http://www.asp.net/identity/overview/features-api/best-practices-for-deploying-passwords-and-other-sensitive-data-to-aspnet-and-azure#con
I gone through lot of threads about this topic but did not get any solution.
First I created a windows application. In that I used app.config file to store some variables it worked properly. Then the application converted to class library. While extracting the varibles it gives only null values.
Any other option to get or set variables in config file in the class library
Thanks.
If you converted you code to some class library you have to remember that it will reuse web.config/app.config of an application, which references it. So I would suggest to add settings from "old" app.config to the configuration file of an application, which uses your library.
We can not use app.config or web.config in class library. Add app.config for Console/Windows application or web.config file for your web application which calls your class library then application will automatically takes and uses that configuration file.
I'm trying to understand Application Settings / AppSettings.
My understanding is that AppSettings (which are within the app.config file) are accessed via ConfigurationManager.AppSettings, and this is considered deprecated functionality.
I understand Application Settings are accessed via Properties.Settings.Default, and are usually created as .settings files (in Visual Studio this can be done in Project Properties).
If this is correct (please confirm), my question is why do all projects in Visual Studio automatically create an App.config file? Can / should I delete this file and create a Settings.settings file instead? Should I use both? (why?) Can I access the app.config file using Properties.Settings? If so, how?
Also, if Properties.Settings.Default accesses the "default" settings file, how / why would you access a file other than the default one?
Edit: This question is not answered by the AppSettings vs Application Settings threads, because my specific question is why I need an App.Config file.
ApplicationSettings are preferred over AppSettings as they are strongly typed, but there are times (such as in Azure) where AppSettings are preferred as they can be set from the Azure control panel on an instance by instance basis.
That said, let's look at the other part of your question relating to Settings.Default vs. App.Config.
I would not remove the App.Config from every project, as it gets automatically updated when you update your settings. The settings file has the default values in code, but the App.Config file can override those at runtime. This is nice to be able to copy the relevant sections to new applications (into their app.config or web.config) that are going to consume a library.
The only app.config file from your projects that gets executed is the startup project, and the values in that app.config (or web.config as it may be) are the ones used at runtime.
Hopefully this clears up some confusion around the relationship of the files.
Sample Structure of Configuration Files:
ProjectA
- ProjectA.Settings
- App.Config // VS syncs with Settings file
ProjectB
- ProjectB.Settings
- App.Config // VS syncs with Settings file
ProjectC (Startup Project
- ProjectC.Settings
- App.Config
// Can contain override settings for ProjectA.Settings and ProjectB.Settings
I'm trying to use application settings with a C#.NET project I am working on. But I can't seem to get it to return anything other then the default values. Through the project properties I've added a single setting, DBConnectionString, and set its value to a connection string I want to use. Its scope is set to "application".
Doing this created a number of files including Settings.settings, Settings.Designer.CS, and app.conifg. From what I understand the two Settings.* files define a custom Settings class that derives from ApplicationSettingsBase. The Settings class then has custom, type safe, properties that can be used to set and retrieve each setting. The app.config file is a XML file that stores the actual settings values.
When I build my project it looks like the app.config file is copied to the target directory as MyApplication.dll.config. My program runs fine and is able to use the default connection string.
Next I tried to edit the MyApplicaiton.dll.config file to change the connection string. I ran my program again, but it continued to use the default value. I noticed that in my Settings.Designer file there is a DefaultSettingValueAttribute with the original default string. I tried removing this attribute, but then when I tried to retrieve the connection string setting it just returned null.
This is the code I'm using to read the connection string.
string conn = Properties.Settings.Default.DbConnectionString
What am I doing wrong? How can I get it to return the value in the settings file and not the default value?
Update:
Sorry I should have mentioned this. I'm actually writing a plug-in for another application through a public API. So my project is a DLL not an EXE.
You cannot read settings from *.dll.config files. If you library needs any special settings you need to put them in your app.config or web.config files.
EDIT: You can include the external config files in the main application or web config file. Look here for details.
This question discusses how to manage configuration files for large projects.
Settings files and .config files are different things (I do not know why VS automatically added a .config when you created a Settings file). But, the settings file is compiled into a class and is referenced like you said. If you decompile the dll with .NET reflector the Settings class will be in there. It is used for holding constant values or external resources. For example: error message strings, icons, or images.
The config file is for settings which can change frequently or between environments (dev, test, prod). For a connection string you should use the <connectionStrings> section of the config file. And the property can be referenced using System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager[ "connectionStringName" ].
However, from your original post it looks like your .dll is going to be used in a larger project (either an .exe of web project). One thing to note is that all projects only use one .config file. And that is the config file for the main project. Websites the web.config file, and exe's use XXX.XXX.XXX.exe.config (as you saw, *.exe.config files are renamed copies of the app.config files). dll's do not have usable config files. All dll's will look at the main project's .config file to retrieve information.
If your connection string is never going to change then by all means use the Settings file. Otherwise, use a config file and let the developer of the main project determine what to populate the connection string with.
OK I have two web projects WebProject1 & WebProject2. Both require database connectivity so this is all in a C#.NET project called Common.
Now my question is currently the connection string for both is the same and at the moment it's hard coded into the DB class (In the Common project), but I want to move it out to a config file.
I would really like to have a config file in the Common project with the connection string in which both web projects then use. Is this possible, and if so how?
There's a few ways you could do it:
put common configuration settings in machine.config as shown here
put common configuration settings in a central file and link to that in each projects's app.config as shown here
store the configuration settings in the registry
Here's a way to do this.
Seperate your DataLayer that interacts with the database by making it a class library project. The class library project will produce an assembly which you can further refer to any project you want. In this project add 'app.config' in the project-root and store your connection string into the app.config. Your data-access classes in the projects can then refer to the connection string in the app.config. When you compile and deploy your data-access project into an assembly the app.config is embeded into the assembly. Now you can add this assembly as reference to as many as projects you want to share the connection and data-access.