R – Configuration strategy for multiple modules

configurationnet

Are there different strategies for configuration when you have multiple modules in the same application? I have an application that uses a CommonLib library which is maintained by some other in-house group, then we are using some 3rd party tools as well that need to be configured. Everything seems to depend on configuration settings being put into the app.config but I can't help thinking that there might come a time where there will be conflicts .. e.g. our CommonLib uses a "username" setting that is being fetched from the element.

Can anyone comment on how this should be done properly?

Should everything be bundled up in one configuration file or could each module have its own configuration file somehow? How would something like that be implemented?

Best Answer

If you are doing this kind of development, you're going to want to use your own System.Configuration.ConfigurationSection - based type instead of just throwing everything into the appSettings key of your XML file. That goes for your vendors too. "appSettings" should only be for application-specific settings, and not for configuring your libraries.

Related Solutions

C# – .NET Configuration (app.config/web.config/settings.settings)

Any configuration that might differ across environments should be stored at the machine level, not the application level. (More info on configuration levels.)

These are the kinds of configuration elements that I typically store at the machine level:

When each environment (developer, integration, test, stage, live) has its own unique settings in the c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\CONFIG directory, then you can promote your application code between environments without any post-build modifications.

And obviously, the contents of the machine-level CONFIG directory get version-controlled in a different repository or a different folder structure from your app. You can make your .config files more source-control friendly through intelligent use of configSource.

I've been doing this for 7 years, on over 200 ASP.NET applications at 25+ different companies. (Not trying to brag, just want to let you know that I've never seen a situation where this approach doesn't work.)

C# – Catch multiple exceptions at once

Catch System.Exception and switch on the types

catch (Exception ex)            
{                
    if (ex is FormatException || ex is OverflowException)
    {
        WebId = Guid.Empty;
        return;
    }
    
    throw;
}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – .NET Configuration (app.config/web.config/settings.settings)

C# – Catch multiple exceptions at once

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