create your own settings in xml - c#

I'm in a ASP.NET project where I need to give several parameters to the administrator that is going to install the website, like:
AllowUserToChangePanelLayout
AllowUserToDeleteCompany
etc...
My question is, will be a good thing to add this into the web.config file, using my own configSession or add as a profile varibles? or should I create a XML file for this?
What do you do and what are the cons and favs?
I originally thought about web.config but I then realized that I should mess up with Website configurations and my own web app configuration and that I should create a different file, them I read this post and now I'm on this place... should I do this or that?

I usually use Settings - available via the project properties - Settings. These can be edited and saved in code, and I write a form / web page to edit them.
If you want to use the XML configuration, there's an attribute called file that reads external files.
You could have a web.config file and a someothername.config file. The someothername.config would have settings like:
<appSettings>
<add key="ConnString" value="my conn string" />
<add key="MaxUsers" value="50" />
</appSettings>
And the web.config would have
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<appSettings file="ExternalWeb.config">
<add key="MyKey" value="MyValue" />
</appSettings>
</configuration>
See DevX for the example I stole.

just to let you guys know that I did what configurator recommended but with a twist.
instead of asking all the time (that I need) for
System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["myKey"];
I just created a static class that would pull this values with what we call by Strongly typed values (so you don't need to remember all the values)
the mySettings class
public static class mySettings
{
public enum SettingsType
{ UserPermitions, WebService, Alerts }
public enum SectionType
{ AllowChangeLayout, AllowUserDelete, MaximumReturnsFromSearch, MaximumOnBatch, SendTo }
public static String GetSettings(SettingsType type, SectionType section)
{
return
ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[
String.Format("{0}_{1}",
Enum.Parse(typeof(SettingsType), type.ToString()).ToString(),
Enum.Parse(typeof(SectionType), section.ToString()).ToString())
];
}
}
the web.config appSettings part
<configuration>
<appSettings file="myApp.config">
<add key="UserPermitions_AllowChangeLayout" value="" />
<add key="UserPermitions_AllowUserDelete" value="" />
<add key="WebService_MaximumReturnsFromSearch" value="" />
<add key="Alerts_SendTo" value="" />
<add key="Alerts_MaximumOnBatch" value="" />
</appSettings>
</configuration>
the entire myApp.config file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!--
###
### This file serves the propose of a quick configuration.
### Administrator can either change this values directly or use the
### Settings tab in the application.
###
-->
<appSettings>
<!-- *** User Access Configuration *** -->
<!-- Allow user to change the panels layout {1: Yes} {0: No} -->
<add key="UserPermitions_AllowChangeLayout" value="1" />
<!-- Allow user to delete a company fro monitoring -->
<add key="UserPermitions_AllowUserDelete" value="1" />
<!-- *** Web Service configuration *** -->
<!-- Maximum responses from the search service -->
<add key="WebService_MaximumReturnsFromSearch" value="10" />
<!-- *** Allerts configuration *** -->
<!-- Send the alerts to the email writeen below -->
<add key="Alerts_SendTo" value="bruno.in.dk#gmail.com" />
<!-- Send an alert when user import more than the number bellow -->
<add key="Alerts_MaximumOnBatch" value="10" />
</appSettings>
So, now I call like this:
p.value = mySettings.GetSettings(
mySettings.SettingsType.WebService,
mySettings.SectionType.MaximumReturnsFromSearch);
Hope that helps someone with the same problem :)

You may also put your configurations in a settings file. In your project, open Properties and go to Settings which looks
like so
To access the values in your code, use Properties.Settings.YourSettingName;
Use Properties.Settings.Default.Reload(); to refresh your settings during runtime

Related

The X.509 certificate could not be loaded from the file

I am using the API SAML2.0 for ASP.net MVC and I used openssl to create the private and public key files and used a password for the private file. It generated two files ca.key and cas.pem, I used the ca.key file as the private key but I am getting this error
Additional information: The X.509 certificate could not be loaded from the file D:\Test Web Projects\TestSaml\TestSaml\Certificates\ca.key.
My users login to my mvc application the login process has nothing to do with SAML. I just check the users against my DB. The reason I am using SAML2.0 is because I need to direct my users for payment process to another external page which is my service provider. So once they click on a button on my page they should be redirected to the other website. The following is the sample code I built to verify if its working.
Web.config
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
For more information on how to configure your ASP.NET application, please visit
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=301880
-->
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="TargetURL" value="https://btat2.paybill.com/consumer/SSO/SSOLogin?clientId=ReadyCapital"/>
<add key="webpages:Version" value="3.0.0.0" />
<add key="webpages:Enabled" value="false" />
<add key="ClientValidationEnabled" value="true" />
<add key="UnobtrusiveJavaScriptEnabled" value="true" />
</appSettings>
<system.web>
<compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.5" />
<httpRuntime targetFramework="4.5" />
</system.web>
</configuration>
Saml.config
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<SAMLConfiguration xmlns="urn:componentspace:SAML:2.0:configuration">
<IdentityProvider Name="https://TestSaml"
Description="Test Identity Provider"
LocalCertificateFile="Certificates\ca.key"
LocalCertificatePassword="readycapital"/>
<PartnerServiceProviders>
<!-- MVC example -->
<PartnerServiceProvider Name="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:assertion"
Description="MVC Example Service Provider"
SignSAMLResponse="true"
SignAssertion="false"
EncryptAssertion="true"
AssertionConsumerServiceUrl="http://www.paybill.com/V2/Test/Login.aspx"
PartnerCertificateFile="Certificates\btat2.cert"/>
</PartnerServiceProviders>
</SAMLConfiguration>
Controller
public ActionResult Index(Profile profile)
{
string targetUrl = WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["TargetURL"];
string userName = "00373219101";// WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SubjectName"];
SAMLAttribute[] attributes = new SAMLAttribute[2];
SAMLAttribute attribute = new SAMLAttribute("UserEmailAddress", SAMLIdentifiers.AttributeNameFormats.Unspecified, null, string.Empty);
attributes[0] = attribute;
SAMLAttribute attribute2 = new SAMLAttribute("MiscellaneousData", SAMLIdentifiers.AttributeNameFormats.Unspecified, null, string.Empty);
attributes[1] = attribute2;
SAMLIdentityProvider.InitiateSSO(Response, userName, attributes, targetUrl);
}
Did you check that the WebServer can actually access the files? Maybe use Microsoft Windows Sysinternals Process Monitor and check that the read operation is successful.
Replace the standalone .key file with a .pfx file both containing the certificate as well as the private key and link to that in IdentityProvider/#LocalCertificateFile

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).

How to use ConfigurationManager.AppSettings with a custom section?

I need to get "http://example.com" from using App.config file.
But at the moment I am using:
string peopleXMLPath = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["server"];
I cannot get the value.
Could you point out what I am doing wrong?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
<configSections>
<section name="device" type="System.Configuration.SingleTagSectionHandler" />
<section name="server" type="System.Configuration.SingleTagSectionHandler" />
</configSections>
<device id="1" description="petras room" location="" mall="" />
<server url="http://example.com" />
</configuration>
I think you need to get the config section, and access that:
var section = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("server") as NameValueCollection;
var value = section["url"];
And you also need to update your config file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
<configSections>
<section name="device" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler" />
<section name="server" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler" />
</configSections>
<device>
<add key="id" value="1" />
<add key="description" value="petras room" />
<add key="location" value="" />
<add key="mall" value="" />
</device>
<server>
<add key="url" value="http://example.com" />
</server>
</configuration>
Edit: As CodeCaster mentioned in his answer, SingleTagSectionHandler is for internal use only. I think NameValueSectionHandler is the preferred way to define config sections.
The SingleTagSectionHandler documentation says:
This API supports the .NET Framework infrastructure and is not intended to be used directly from your code.
You can retrieve it as a HashTable and access its entries using Configuration.GetSection():
Hashtable serverTag = (Hashtable)ConfigurationManager.GetSection("server");
string serverUrl = (string)serverTag["url"];
string peopleXMLPath = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["server"];
gets the value from the appSettings part of the app.config file but you are storing your value in
<server url="http://example.com" />
Either put the value in the appSettings section as below or retrieve the value from its current location.
You need to add a key value pair to your config's appSettings section. As below:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="server" value="http://example.com" />
</appSettings>
</configuration>
Your reading code is correct but you should probably check for null. If the code fails to read the config value the string variable will be null.
You're defining a configuration section instead of a value in AppSettings. You can simply add your setting to AppSettings:
<appSettings>
... may be some settings here already
<add key="server" value="http://example.com" />
</appSettings>
Custom config sections are typically used for more complicated configurations (e.g. multiple values per key, non-string values, etc.
If you want to get the value from the app settings your appsetting element in configuration file must have a key.
define your sever value as mentioned below under configuration section:
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="server" value="http://example.com" />
</appSettings>
...
...
...
</configuration>
Now execute below code line to get the server url:
string peopleXMLPath = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["server"].ToString();

The configuration element is not declared

I'm doing some work in Visual Studio 2012 Express Edition. I have added an App.config XML file as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
</configuration>
The first thing that happens is a warning comes up that says "The 'configuration' element is not declared". Does anyone know why this is happening? It looks like elements can not be declared inside of until this is resolved.
Thanks!
This is the entire XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="Version" value="779" />
<add key="TimeOut" value="60000" />
<add key="LogFileName" value="Log.txt" />
<!-- your Developer Id with eBay -->
<add key="Environment.DevId" value="" />
<!-- your Application Id with eBay -->
<add key="Environment.AppId" value="" />
<!-- your Application Certificate with eBay -->
<add key="Environment.CertId" value="" />
<!-- API Server URL -->
<!-- For production site use: https://api.ebay.com/wsapi -->
<!-- For Sandbox use: https://api.sandbox.ebay.com/wsapi -->
<add key="Environment.ApiServerUrl" value="https://api.sandbox.ebay.com/wsapi" />
<!-- EPS Server URL -->
<!-- For production site use: https://api.ebay.com/ws/api.dll"/-->
<add key="Environment.EpsServerUrl" value="https://api.sandbox.ebay.com/ws/api.dll" />
<!-- eBay Signin URL -->
<!-- For production site use: https://signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SignIn -->
<!-- https://signin.sandbox.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SignIn -->
<add key="Environment.SignInUrl" value="https://signin.sandbox.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SignIn" />
<!-- ViewItem URL -->
<!-- For production site use: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item={0} -->
<add key="Environment.ViewItemUrl" value="http://cgi.sandbox.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item={0}" />
<!-- token is for both API server and EPS server -->
<add key="UserAccount.ApiToken" value="" />
<!-- eBay site ID -->
<add key="UserAccount.eBayUserSiteId" value="0" />
<add key="logexception" value="true"/>
<add key="logmessages" value="true"/>
<add key="logsdkmessages" value="true"/>
<add key="logsdk" value="true"/>
<add key="logfile" value="Log.txt"/>
<!-- Rule Name-->
<add key="RuName" value=""/>
<!-- Set this if you access eBay API server behind a proxy server-->
<add key="Proxy.Host" value =""/>
<add key="Proxy.Port" value =""/>
<!-- set proxy server username/password if necessary-->
<add key="Proxy.Username" value=""/>
<add key="Proxy.Password" value=""/>
Go to XML menu (visual studio top menu item) choose schemas and find for DotNetConfig.xsd and choose Use this schema.
Your problem will resolve for sure
<configuration xmlns="schema URL">
<!-- configuration settings -->
</configuration>
do changes,like above & try
I had the same issue. It is not an error, it is simply a warning; so your application should still compile. I used the following simple config file and the warning is still produced.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<startup>
<supportedRuntime
version="v4.0"sku=".NETFramework,
Version=v4.5"/>
</startup>
</configuration>
It is an issue that has been raised on the MSDN website, but it does not seem to have been satisfactorily resolved. See link below:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/Vsexpressvcs/thread/18a1074f-668f-4fe3-a8d9-4440db797439
I had to
-> Go to XML menu (visual studio top menu item) choose schemas and select DotNetConfig.xsd AND RazorCustomSchema.xsd AND EntityFrameworkConfig_6_1_0.xsd
I just had this warning popup inside an autogenerated xml file while working on a xaml project.
Using Debug->Clean Solution and Debug->Rebuild Solution fixed it. Might want to try that before getting fancy with the schemas.
Visual Studio 2013 Express Edition is missing the DotNetConfig.xsd (https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/817322/dotnetconfig-xsd-files-not-present-in-vs-2013-express-for-desktop).
So to get rid of the warning in VS 2013 Express:
get a copy of DotNetConfig.xsd from another system or from the web (I used https://gist.github.com/eed3si9n/5dd7dd98ad2b3f668928b23477de35a3)
download to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Xml\Schemas
add the schema following Ramakrishna's answer
The warning should be gone.
Choose use this schema. DotNetConfig.xsd
XLM Menu..... Visual Studio
Works perfectly.
I was having less space on my drive which might have resulted in incomplete loading of my application solution. This "the-configuration-element-is-not-declared" problem got solved after i created some space on my drive.
I also got the same warning. After thinking about for some time I realized my error working with SQL (MS SQL).
Warning: the 'configuration' element is not declared
Using C#
App.Config code:
<connectionStrings>
<add name="dbx" connectionString="Data Source=ServerNameHere;Initial Catalog=DatabaseNameHere;Integrated Security=True" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
</connectionStrings>
*this calls out the database name in the connectionStrings, when I plugged in my SQL code as a practice I always use the database name, schema, then table. This practice didn't carry over well in Visual Studio as I am a beginner. I removed the db name from my SQL syntax and only called from the schema, data table. This resolved the issue for me.
Form.CS:
using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("SELECT * FROM [DatabaseName].[Schema].[TableName] WHERE [MEPeriod] = '2020-06-01'", con))
Updated to:
using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("SELECT * FROM [Schema].[TableName] WHERE [MEPeriod] = '2020-06-01'", con))
This worked for me, I hope this is found as useful.

How to change the value of attribute in appSettings section with Web.config transformation

Is it possible to transform the following Web.config appSettings file:
<appSettings>
<add key="developmentModeUserId" value="00297022" />
<add key="developmentMode" value="true" />
/* other settings here that should stay */
</appSettings>
into something like this:
<appSettings>
<add key="developmentMode" value="false" />
/* other settings here that should stay */
</appSettings>
So, I need to remove the key developmentModeUserId, and I need to replace the value for the key developmentMode.
You want something like:
<appSettings>
<add key="developmentModeUserId" xdt:Transform="Remove" xdt:Locator="Match(key)"/>
<add key="developmentMode" value="false" xdt:Transform="SetAttributes"
xdt:Locator="Match(key)"/>
</appSettings>
See Also: Web.config Transformation Syntax for Web Application Project Deployment
Replacing all AppSettings
This is the overkill case where you just want to replace an entire section of the web.config. In this case I will replace all AppSettings in the web.config will new settings in web.release.config. This is my baseline web.config appSettings:
<appSettings>
<add key="KeyA" value="ValA"/>
<add key="KeyB" value="ValB"/>
</appSettings>
Now in my web.release.config file, I am going to create a appSettings section except I will include the attribute xdt:Transform=”Replace” since I want to just replace the entire element. I did not have to use xdt:Locator because there is nothing to locate – I just want to wipe the slate clean and replace everything.
<appSettings xdt:Transform="Replace">
<add key="ProdKeyA" value="ProdValA"/>
<add key="ProdKeyB" value="ProdValB"/>
<add key="ProdKeyC" value="ProdValC"/>
</appSettings>
Note that in the web.release.config file my appSettings section has three keys instead of two, and the keys aren’t even the same. Now let’s look at the generated web.config file what happens when we publish:
<appSettings>
<add key="ProdKeyA" value="ProdValA"/>
<add key="ProdKeyB" value="ProdValB"/>
<add key="ProdKeyC" value="ProdValC"/>
</appSettings>
Just as we expected – the web.config appSettings were completely replaced by the values in web.release config. That was easy!
If you want to make transformation your app setting from web config file to web.Release.config,you have to do the following steps.
Let your web.config app setting file is this-
<appSettings>
<add key ="K1" value="Debendra Dash"/>
</appSettings>
Now here is the web.Release.config for the transformation.
<appSettings>
<add key="K1" value="value dynamicly from Realease"
xdt:Transform="SetAttributes"
xdt:Locator="Match(key)"
/>
</appSettings>
This will transform the value of K1 to the new value in realese Mode.
I do not like transformations to have any more info than needed. So instead of restating the keys, I simply state the condition and intention. It is much easier to see the intention when done like this, at least IMO. Also, I try and put all the xdt attributes first to indicate to the reader, these are transformations and not new things being defined.
<appSettings>
<add xdt:Locator="Condition(#key='developmentModeUserId')" xdt:Transform="Remove" />
<add xdt:Locator="Condition(#key='developmentMode')" xdt:Transform="SetAttributes"
value="false"/>
</appSettings>
In the above it is much easier to see that the first one is removing the element. The 2nd one is setting attributes. It will set/replace any attributes you define here. In this case it will simply set value to false.

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