Is it possible to relocate the whole App.Config file to a custom path?
It seems a bit odd that the config file resides in the same folder as the exe, with Windows' new approcah of saving all program settings in c:\ProgramData and all.
An additional requirement we have is to programatically specify where to find the app.config file. The reason for this being that we spawn different service instances from the same exes, and would like to store each service's app.config in that service's settings folder under c:\ProgramData\\.
If still relevant, we have used the following I found on another suggested answer to another question here on Stack Overflow...
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetData ("APP_CONFIG_FILE", "path to config file")
Worked great for us when we had issues loading app.config from DLL only...
Each AppDomain has/can have its own configuration file. The default AppDomain created by CLR host uses programname.exe.config; if you want to provide your own configuration file, create separate AppDomain. Example:
// get the name of the assembly
string exeAssembly = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().FullName;
// setup - there you put the path to the config file
AppDomainSetup setup = new AppDomainSetup();
setup.ApplicationBase = System.Environment.CurrentDirectory;
setup.ConfigurationFile = "<path to your config file>";
// create the app domain
AppDomain appDomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("My AppDomain", null, setup);
// create proxy used to call the startup method
YourStartupClass proxy = (YourStartupClass)appDomain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap(
exeAssembly, typeof(YourStartupClass).FullName);
// call the startup method - something like alternative main()
proxy.StartupMethod();
// in the end, unload the domain
AppDomain.Unload(appDomain);
Hope that helps.
I know this is an old question, but for those who just want to have their app.config in a different location then their binary output build location, the following works as microsoft intended it (and thus no need re-read and re-write the file to disk)
Define an app.config as you always do.
Define another config file where you want to have the actual configuration file
Change the app.config so that it refers to the configuration file
At runtime the settings from the configuration file will override the settings in the app.config (if present). And you are done.
Example app.config
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<startup>
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.0"/>
</startup>
<appSettings file="..\Config\settings.config">
<add key="port" value="1001"/>
</appSettings>
</configuration>
Note the file="..\Config\settings.config". You are completely free to define the path to the location where you want your users to change settings.
Example of the actual configuration file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<appSettings>
<add key="port" value="1234"/>
</appSettings>
At runtime the setting port will have the value 1234.
More info see msdn
This worked for me.. (taken from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.configuration.appsettingssection.aspx)
// open config
System.Configuration.Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
// update appconfig file path
config.AppSettings.File = "C:\\dev\\App.config";
// Save the configuration file.
config.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified);
// Force a reload in memory of the changed section.
ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection("appSettings");
Then when you call
NameValueCollection settings = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings;
or any operation to fetch the app config, the new path is used.
Hope this might help someone else who has same problem!
I am sorry if I misunderstand your request but can you not use
ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration Method (String)
Based on the change, is it possible that you can use
AppDomainSetup.ConfigurationFile Property
This is an ancient question, but I ran into this same problem and came up with a hacky workaround from a few minutes in reflector:
static public class ConfigHack {
static public void OverrideAppConfig(string path) {
((AppDomainSetup)
typeof(AppDomain)
.GetField("_FusionStore", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance)
.GetValue(AppDomain.CurrentDomain))
.ConfigurationFile = path;
}
static public void ResetConfigManager() {
typeof(ConfigurationManager)
.GetField("s_initState", BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.NonPublic)
.SetValue(null, 0);
}
}
I've only used it on .NET2, but it looks the same in 4 in reflector. Of course I wouldn't recommend shipping this :P I only use it for quick internal things.
You could use astander's approach of calling OpenExeConfiguration. If you literally want to relocate your config file, you'll have to create your own app domain. In the process of setting up your app domain you get the chance to specify where the config file is located.
BTW, .NET config files aren't great for configuration, at least not the sort that users can modify: they're not like INI files or the registry. If you want flexibility over where your configuration comes from you're better off storing it separately.
If u use the registry, your problem can be resolved.
MSDN probably would help...
The element
simplifies servicing for component
assemblies. If one or more
applications use an assembly that has
a configuration file residing in a
well-known location, the configuration
files of the applications that use the
assembly can use the
element to
include the assembly configuration
file, rather than including
configuration information directly.
When the component assembly is
serviced, updating the common
configuration file provides updated
configuration information to all
applications that use the assembly
Related
After creating new Visual C# Console Application (.NET Framework 4.5), such project contains default App.config file.
After adding a reference for System.Configuration to project and use it in some source file using System.Configuration; I can use static class ConfigurationManager to operate with App.config file. But before, I want to add some settings to the file, so it's somehow like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="DeployWeb" value="true" />
</appSettings>
<startup>
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5" />
</startup>
</configuration>
Now, I can write something like this, to get the value of the setting:
Boolean deployWeb = false;
Boolean.TryParse(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["DeployWeb"], out deployWeb);
However I didn't set which configuration file to read,but it's okay, because there is the default one. But I can add more configuration files by right click on the project -> Add -> New Item... -> Application Configuration File, so that I have, for example, 5 configuration files, like on the picture:
And ConfigurationManager will still read the default one, but I want to manually control, which config file to use. I want to know, if is there an appropriate way to set to the ConfigurationManager config file name to use etc. and if it's not a bad practice. I know how to use different configurations in debug/release mode, but in my case I have an application, that can be runned in different modes for different purposes in release, for example.
Question: Is it possible to have several configuration files in a project and to have ability to switch which one I want to use. Isn't it a bad practice, shall I use some another approach for my purpose ? Using build events is not suitable in my case (I think).
PS. I am sorry for stretching my question, however my itis quite simple and could be just asked in two sentences, but as the rules says, question should contains details.
UPDATE:
From already existing answer "Option: You can use the ConfigurationManager Class to load an alternate config file by code." From reading msdn I didn't get which of the methods should I use. Should I open Exe configuration ?
It can be done using mapped config file ,
ExeConfigurationFileMap configFileMap =
new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
configFileMap.ExeConfigFilename = "App4.config"; // full path to the config file
// Get the mapped configuration file
Configuration config =
ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(
configFileMap, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
//now on use config object
AppSettingsSection section = (AppSettingsSection)config.GetSection("appSettings");
I'm creating a web application, which calls a DLL to run unit tests, I also have another DLL(DataAccessLayer) which performs connections and performs queries to SQL which references the main DLL. Both the DLLs use the same config file to read settings.
When running application from VS, the application is working fine. However when the web app is deployed to IIS, it seems the DLLs are unable to read the settings from the config file.
After some research I found that I might have to explicitly define the configuration elements in the web.config file, however I don't know how to implement this. Can someone please point me in the right direction?
I'm actually retrieving the settings using the ConfigurationManager with the following code:-
public string GetValue(string key)
{
var appConfig = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration("path to dll");
strKeyValue = appConfig.AppSettings.Settings[key].Value;
return strKeyValue;
}
Thanks.
Use WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["HelloWorldKey"]; to read AppSettings from the web.config.
Just set all the appSettings values used by the DLL you mention, directly in the web.config PRIOR to deploying the app. You don't need to modify this at run-time (and you shouldn't anyway, since any modification to the web.config will cause the application to restart)
Add the connectionstring or AppSetting or ApplicationSettings used in you app.config into your web.config, I understand this is a manual task but is the only way that the config will read the settings.
Use following code to access connection string
string filePath= WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Pathfile"].ToString();
Web config Fie
<configuration>
....
<appSettings>
<add key="Pathfile" value="Path to dll"/>
</appSettings>
....
</configuration>
I have done a project in C#.NET where my database file is an Excel workbook. Since the location of the connection string is hard coded in my coding, there is no problem for installing it in my system, but for other systems there is.
Is there a way to prompt the user to set a path once after the setup of the application is completed?
The answers I got was "Use App.Config"... can anyone tell what is this App.config and how to use it in my context here?
At its simplest, the app.config is an XML file with many predefined configuration sections available and support for custom configuration sections. A "configuration section" is a snippet of XML with a schema meant to store some type of information.
Overview (MSDN)
Connection String Configuration (MSDN)
Settings can be configured using built-in configuration sections such as connectionStrings or appSettings. You can add your own custom configuration sections; this is an advanced topic, but very powerful for building strongly-typed configuration files.
Web applications typically have a web.config, while Windows GUI/service applications have an app.config file.
Application-level config files inherit settings from global configuration files like machine.config. Web also applications inherit settings from applicationHost.config.
Reading from the App.Config
Connection strings have a predefined schema that you can use. Note that this small snippet is actually a valid app.config (or web.config) file:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<connectionStrings>
<add name="MyKey"
connectionString="Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=ABC;"
providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
</connectionStrings>
</configuration>
Once you have defined your app.config, you can read it in code using the ConfigurationManager class. Don't be intimidated by the verbose MSDN examples; it's actually quite simple.
string connectionString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MyKey"].ConnectionString;
Writing to the App.Config
Frequently changing the *.config files is usually not a good idea, but it sounds like you only want to perform one-time setup.
See: Change connection string & reload app.config at run time which describes how to update the connectionStrings section of the *.config file at runtime.
Note that ideally you would perform such configuration changes from a simple installer.
Location of the App.Config at Runtime
Q: Suppose I manually change some <value> in app.config, save it and then close it. Now when I go to my bin folder and launch the .exe file from here, why doesn't it reflect the applied changes?
A: When you compile an application, its app.config is copied to the bin directory1 with a name that matches your exe. For example, if your exe was named "test.exe", there should be a ("text.exe.config" in .net framework) or ("text.dll.config" in .net core) in your bin directory. You can change the configuration without a recompile, but you will need to edit the config file that was created at compile time, not the original app.config.
1: Note that web.config files are not moved, but instead stay in the same location at compile and deployment time. One exception to this is when a web.config is transformed.
.NET Core
New configuration options were introduced with .NET Core and continue with the unified .NET (version 5+). The way that *.config files works hasn't fundamentally changed, but developers are free to choose new, more flexible configuration paradigms.
As with .NET Framework configuration .NET Core can get quite complex, but implementation can be as simple as a few lines of configuration with a few lines of c# to read it.
Configuration in ASP.NET Core
Configuration in .NET Core
Simply, App.config is an XML based file format that holds the Application Level Configurations.
Example:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="key" value="test" />
</appSettings>
</configuration>
You can access the configurations by using ConfigurationManager as shown in the piece of code snippet below:
var value = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["key"];
// value is now "test"
Note: ConfigurationSettings is obsolete method to retrieve configuration information.
var value = System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["key"];
App.Config is an XML file that is used as a configuration file for your application. In other words, you store inside it any setting that you may want to change without having to change code (and recompiling). It is often used to store connection strings.
See this MSDN article on how to do that.
Just to add something I was missing from all the answers - even if it seems to be silly and obvious as soon as you know:
The file has to be named "App.config" or "app.config" and can be located in your project at the same level as e.g. Program.cs.
I do not know if other locations are possible, other names (like application.conf, as suggested in the ODP.net documentation) did not work for me.
PS. I started with Visual Studio Code and created a new project with "dotnet new". No configuration file is created in this case, I am sure there are other cases.
PPS. You may need to add a nuget package to be able to read the config file, in case of .NET CORE it would be "dotnet add package System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager --version 4.5.0"
You can access keys in the App.Config using:
ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["KeyName"]
Take alook at this Thread
Just adding one more point
Using app.config some how you can control application access, you want apply particular change to entire application use app config file and you can access the settings like below
ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["Key"]
Application settings enable you to store application information dynamically. Settings allow you to store information on the client computer that shouldn't be included in the application code (for example a connection string), user preferences, and other information you need at runtime.
To add an application configuration file to a C# project:
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project node, and then select Add > New Item.
The Add New Item dialog box appears.
Expand Installed > Visual C# Items.
In the middle pane, select the Application Configuration File template.
Select the Add button.
A file named App.config is added to your project.
take a look at this article
I have a .NET 3.5 class library I built that reads an App.config file for values it needs. It can pull the config values just fine when I test it in Visual Studio. To test it, I just change the project to a console application and execute a method call.
I have the need to call this class library from many other .NET programs, and I want the class library to be self sufficient (I should be able to call it from any other program, and it should use its own config file, not know about any calling config file etc.).
I can add a reference to the dll (since I am still development I am using VS 2008, haven't thrown anything into the GAC yet) but the App.config that the class library is reading is from the calling program's App.config, not the class library's App.config.
The class library dll has it's config file in the same directory, so it should be able to find it just fine, and the calling application is named differently. I am using the standard key value pairs in the App.config (e.g. name of config file myClassLibrary.dll.config) and getting values out with the following line of code:
String myVal = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["myConfigSetting"];
Does anyone know how to fix this?
An app domain in C# can have only one assembly level app.config file. See here on MSDN. An executable will always start up an AppDomain and by default look for a config file with name: EXECUTABLE_NAME.config. For example, SampleApp01.exe will look for SampleApp01.exe.config as its configuration file.
you can place your configs in the machine.config file inside the framework folder by this way you can globally use your configuration in all .Net applications running in that machine,
I believe app.config will always be used by the executable. Just drop it in that directory.
They would do that to ensure the dll can be shared and not have to share the same .config file.
You might be able to create a link from the executable .config file
<appSettings configSource="\lib\app.config">
Or change its name, i don't understand how you can have both app.config files in the same directory..don't they have the same name?
<appSettings configSource="\lib.app.config">
I can't find a way to avoid getting the app.config for the calling dll/exe etc. The only way I have found is to use a hardcoded path and load it that way. Here is code I am using to do that:
using System.Configuration;
...
public static KeyValueConfigurationCollection getAppSettingsFromAppConfig(String appConfigPath) {
ExeConfigurationFileMap fileMap = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
fileMap.ExeConfigFilename = appConfigPath;
Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(fileMap, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
AppSettingsSection section = config.AppSettings;
KeyValueConfigurationCollection appsettings = section.Settings;
return appsettings;
}
You then have a collection of KeyValueConfigurationElement, which you can use .Value to get the string from config file with.
We have an "engine" that loads dlls dynamically (whatever is located in a certain directory) and calls Workflow classes from them by way of reflection.
We now have some new Workflows that require access to a database, so I figured that I would put a config file in the dll directory.
But for some reason my Workflows just don't see the config file.
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="ConnectString" value="Data Source=officeserver;Database=mydatabase;User ID=officeuser;Password=officeuser;" />
</appSettings>
</configuration>
Given the above config file, the following code prints an empty string:
Console.WriteLine(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ConnectString"]);
I think what I want is to just specify a config filename, but I'm having problems here. I'm just not getting results.
Anyone have any pointers?
If your code sample for reading the AppSettings is in your DLL, then it will attempt to read the config file for the application and not the config file for the DLL. This is because you're using Reflection to execute the code.
Funny, where I'm at we're doing something very similar and the config file loads just fine. In our case I think each new config file's name matches that of it's associated assembly. So MyLibrary.dll would have a file named MyLibrary.dll.config with information for that file assembly. Also, the example I have handy is using VB.Net rather than C# (we have some of each) and all the settings in there are for the VB-specific My.Settings namespace, so we don't use the ConfigurationManager class directly to read them.
The settings themselves look like this:
<applicationSettings>
<MyLibrary.My.MySettings>
<setting name="SomeSetting" serializeAs="String">
<value>12345</value>
</setting>
</MyLibrary.My.MySettings>
</applicationSettings>
I wrote this for a similar system. My recollection is that I used Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly to get the file path to the DLL, appended .config to that name, loaded it as an XmlDocument, navigated to the <appSettings> node and passed that to a NameValueSectionHandler's Create method.
Here is one way -
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetData ("APP_CONFIG_FILE", "path to config file");
Call in constructor.
If I recall correctly, the app.config will be loaded from your application directory, so if you are loading dlls from some other directory, you'll want the keys they need in your application's config file.
I'm not totally sure but I think that class only works with the path of the entry method of the AppDomain (the path of the exe most of the time) by default.
You need to call OpenExeConfiguration(string exePath) (Framework 2.0 and later) first to point to a different config file.