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Where to store config information?registry and now it seems that it's gone back to files again with the introduction of .config files to facilitate xcopy deployment. However, I'm still pretty confused about where everything should go. It seems that with Windows Vista we can't write to directory in which the application is located - so I'm wondering where this stuff should go in various different situations. For example, I have a NT Service application and a GUI tool to configure that NT Service. The GUI config tool will typically be run by Joe Schmoe and will need to write our various settings to configure the operation of the NT Service, which will likely be running in the security context of the Local System or Network System account. So, if Joe writes settings to one of his user directories then that's not too much use. On the other hand, from what I understand Joe won't have access to write to the program directory either - so where/how should the configuration settings for this NT Service be read/written by the GUI tool that Joe runs, such that they can then be read/used by the NT Service that they're destined for? In another situation, I have a middle tier application server which will be running under IIS. I'm presuming here that I can use different sections in the web.config file to store application specific data - correct? And then, in the simplest of all situations, there's the standard Windows Forms app, in which case there are two kinds of config information: 1) Application specific config info -like database connection strings etc. 2) User specific config info - like persistence information for window/dialog positions and options. I'm wondering which classes in the .NET Framework I'd use to write the former and which I'd use to write the later (and if possible I'd like to track down some sample code for both). Is there a comprehensive guide somewhere as to where we should be storing dynamic config info in each of the different situations above? Thanks in advance for any help with this. Best Regards, James Crosswell Microforge.net LLC http://www.microforge.net When you us a .NT service you should write a .config file in the same dir
where your service is installed and be sure that the user running the service has the right privileges to access the dir (are you using the ConfigurationManager class? This is a must with VS2005!). Speaking of IIS, the SQL connection string must be located in the web.config file in the section connectionStrings and for security's sake they must be encrypted (contact me if you need samples or more clarification) and the other Web setting on other yours private sections but in the same web.config (it's simpler). When you have to store frequently accessed and changed config info, it's a good practice to store it in the Application Settings. Regards, Adriano Palmieri. Show quote "James Crosswell" wrote: > So it used to be that this info went in ini files... then it was the > registry and now it seems that it's gone back to files again with the > introduction of .config files to facilitate xcopy deployment. > > However, I'm still pretty confused about where everything should go. It > seems that with Windows Vista we can't write to directory in which the > application is located - so I'm wondering where this stuff should go in > various different situations. > > For example, I have a NT Service application and a GUI tool to configure > that NT Service. The GUI config tool will typically be run by Joe Schmoe > and will need to write our various settings to configure the operation > of the NT Service, which will likely be running in the security context > of the Local System or Network System account. So, if Joe writes > settings to one of his user directories then that's not too much use. On > the other hand, from what I understand Joe won't have access to write to > the program directory either - so where/how should the configuration > settings for this NT Service be read/written by the GUI tool that Joe > runs, such that they can then be read/used by the NT Service that > they're destined for? > > In another situation, I have a middle tier application server which will > be running under IIS. I'm presuming here that I can use different > sections in the web.config file to store application specific data - > correct? > > And then, in the simplest of all situations, there's the standard > Windows Forms app, in which case there are two kinds of config information: > 1) Application specific config info -like database connection strings etc. > 2) User specific config info - like persistence information for > window/dialog positions and options. > > I'm wondering which classes in the .NET Framework I'd use to write the > former and which I'd use to write the later (and if possible I'd like to > track down some sample code for both). > > Is there a comprehensive guide somewhere as to where we should be > storing dynamic config info in each of the different situations above? > > Thanks in advance for any help with this. > > Best Regards, > > James Crosswell > Microforge.net LLC > http://www.microforge.net > Adriano .NET wrote:
> When you us a .NT service you should write a .config file in the same dir Thanks Adriano - I guess I'll have to oblige system administrators to > where your service is installed and be sure that the user running the service > has the right privileges to access the dir (are you using the > ConfigurationManager class? This is a must with VS2005!). configure the NT Service, which is almost always the case with the product I'm writing anyway. I am trying to use the ConfigurationManager class but it's kind of complex for what initially appears to be a simple task. I have various different "modules" for this app and I'd like each module to store it's configuration information in a separate SectionGroup within the config file. I saw some quite good code demonstrating how to do this in .NET 1.1 (very simply) but haven't found any examples for .NET 2 that write settings anywhere but to the AppSettings... I'd like to write stuff to Custom sections (otherwise there's going to end up being an aweful lot of stuff in the root AppSettings)... Ideally I'd like: <configuration> <appSettings> ...general app settings here <modules> <moduleName> ... finally all the config info here </moduleName> </modules> </appSettings> </configuration> Writing the general app settings seems simple enough - they're just name/value pairs. I haven't bumped into any xpath functionality in the ConfigurationManager class/subclasses yet though (I'm sure I'm just looking in the wrong places). Thanks again for your reply. Best Regards, James Crosswell Microforge.net LLC http://www.microforge.net If you have this file:
<configuration> <appSettings> <add key="ABCD" value="Hello" /> </appSettings> </configuration> What did you have to do in version 1.1 was, like an example: string xxx = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["ABCD"] but it's now obsolete; instead you must use: NameValueCollection AllAppSettings = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings; string xxx = AllAppSettings["ABCD"]; or NameValueCollection AllAppSettings = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings; string xxx = AllAppSettings[0]; Let me know if you need more. Regards, Adriano Palmieri. Show quote "James Crosswell" wrote: > Adriano .NET wrote: > > When you us a .NT service you should write a .config file in the same dir > > where your service is installed and be sure that the user running the service > > has the right privileges to access the dir (are you using the > > ConfigurationManager class? This is a must with VS2005!). > > Thanks Adriano - I guess I'll have to oblige system administrators to > configure the NT Service, which is almost always the case with the > product I'm writing anyway. > > I am trying to use the ConfigurationManager class but it's kind of > complex for what initially appears to be a simple task. I have various > different "modules" for this app and I'd like each module to store it's > configuration information in a separate SectionGroup within the config file. > > I saw some quite good code demonstrating how to do this in .NET 1.1 > (very simply) but haven't found any examples for .NET 2 that write > settings anywhere but to the AppSettings... I'd like to write stuff to > Custom sections (otherwise there's going to end up being an aweful lot > of stuff in the root AppSettings)... Ideally I'd like: > > <configuration> > <appSettings> > ...general app settings here > <modules> > <moduleName> > ... finally all the config info here </moduleName> > </modules> > </appSettings> > </configuration> > > Writing the general app settings seems simple enough - they're just > name/value pairs. I haven't bumped into any xpath functionality in the > ConfigurationManager class/subclasses yet though (I'm sure I'm just > looking in the wrong places). > > Thanks again for your reply. > > Best Regards, > > James Crosswell > Microforge.net LLC > http://www.microforge.net > Adriano .NET wrote:
Show quote > If you have this file: Thanks Adriano, but that's not what I'm trying to do though (I've seen a > <configuration> > <appSettings> > <add key="ABCD" value="Hello" /> > </appSettings> > </configuration> > > What did you have to do in version 1.1 was, like an example: > > string xxx = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["ABCD"] > > but it's now obsolete; instead you must use: > > NameValueCollection AllAppSettings = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings; > string xxx = AllAppSettings["ABCD"]; > > or > > NameValueCollection AllAppSettings = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings; > string xxx = AllAppSettings[0]; > > Let me know if you need more. > > Regards, Adriano Palmieri. million examples of doing just that). What I'm trying to do is store settings somewhere OTHER than the root appSettings branch... So imagine I want to be able to read/write ot the setting ABCD below, do you know how I'd do that? <configuration> <settings> <modules> <myModule> <add key="ABCD" value="Hello" /> </myModule> </modules> </settings> </configuration> I've seen examples of how to do so in .NET 1.1, such as: http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/app_config.asp But I can't find anything on how to do the same using the new ConfigurationManager class. Best Regards, James Crosswell Microforge.net LLC http://www.microforge.net Hi James,
what are you trying to do is not standard and absolutely not suggested on Microsoft practice (at least for what I've been told for my MCTS). You can read the config file that you want by hand using xml statement but I highly suggest you to use the standard Microsoft structure, meaning go and use the AppSettings or UserSettings, even if in there you have to use a special handmade class to manage your stuff. When you specify the Settings in VS2005, you can specify every object present in the framework like a parameter and this include your personal class to manage the settings; this class must inherit from ApplicationSettingsBase. I'll build an example as fast as I can and I'past it to you. Regards, Adriano Palmieri. Show quote "James Crosswell" wrote: > Adriano .NET wrote: > > If you have this file: > > <configuration> > > <appSettings> > > <add key="ABCD" value="Hello" /> > > </appSettings> > > </configuration> > > > > What did you have to do in version 1.1 was, like an example: > > > > string xxx = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["ABCD"] > > > > but it's now obsolete; instead you must use: > > > > NameValueCollection AllAppSettings = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings; > > string xxx = AllAppSettings["ABCD"]; > > > > or > > > > NameValueCollection AllAppSettings = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings; > > string xxx = AllAppSettings[0]; > > > > Let me know if you need more. > > > > Regards, Adriano Palmieri. > > Thanks Adriano, but that's not what I'm trying to do though (I've seen a > million examples of doing just that). What I'm trying to do is store > settings somewhere OTHER than the root appSettings branch... So imagine > I want to be able to read/write ot the setting ABCD below, do you know > how I'd do that? > > <configuration> > <settings> > <modules> > <myModule> > <add key="ABCD" value="Hello" /> > </myModule> > </modules> > </settings> > </configuration> > > > I've seen examples of how to do so in .NET 1.1, such as: > http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/app_config.asp > > But I can't find anything on how to do the same using the new > ConfigurationManager class. > > Best Regards, > > James Crosswell > Microforge.net LLC > http://www.microforge.net > Adriano .NET wrote:
> what are you trying to do is not standard and absolutely not suggested on Hm, well it might not be suggested but putting everything in appSettings > Microsoft practice (at least for what I've been told for my MCTS). You can without making any grouping/sections is analogous to putting all the files on a computer in the root directory of the C drive... which I'm not about to do - it's a management nightmare... so if it's not yet suggested then someone should suggest it to them. Regardless, I have multiple modules and there may well be two modules, both with a settings called "Foo"... so I want to keep this information in separate SectionGroups (even if these SectionGroups are under nested inside the appSettings tags - I don't particularly care where they are but they MUST be heirarchical). So the following would be fine also: <configuration> <appSettings> <modules> <myFirstModule> <add key="ABCD" value="Hello" /> </myFirstModule> <mySecondModule> <add key="ABCD" value="Hello" /> </mySecondModule> </modules> </appSettings> </configuration> It's a bit bizarre really - it looks like the new ConfigurationManager class is a lot less powerful and flexible at handling these XML config files than the old ConfigurationSettings class. By why would anyone depricate a class that is more powerful than the alternative that they've replaced it with??? I don't think they would, so it must be possible to create groups/hierarchies of settings in the app config file using the new ConfigurationManager class somehow. If not then I'll have to either go back to using the deprecated class or write my own classes to read/write settings to the app config file directly using the raw XML classes and xpaths. Best Regards, James Crosswell Microforge.net LLC http://www.microforge.net This is another answer Jeff, cause what are you tring to do is not using a
config file (in the way it meant to be, Microsoft speaking) but using your XML formatted config file. So let's say you have this config file, located like usual in the exe directory of the project and with the conventional name: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <configuration> <settings> <modules> <myModule> <module1 name="mod1" param="Hello1" /> <module2 name="mod2" param="Hello2" /> <module3 name="mod3" param="Hello3" /> </myModule> </modules> </settings> </configuration> just use simple XML DOC to access it and it's done: Configuration cs = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None); XmlDocument xdoc = new XmlDocument(); xdoc.Load(new FileStream(cs.FilePath, FileMode.Open)); if (xdoc.HasChildNodes) { XmlNode xnode = xdoc["configuration"]["settings"]["modules"]["myModule"]["module1"]; XmlAttribute xName = xnode.Attributes["name"]; XmlAttribute xParam = xnode.Attributes["param"]; Console.WriteLine(xName.Name + " - " + xName.Value); Console.WriteLine(xParam.Name + " - " + xParam.Value); } Console.ReadLine(); try it on and let me know. Regards, Adriano Palmieri. Show quote "James Crosswell" wrote: > Adriano .NET wrote: > > If you have this file: > > <configuration> > > <appSettings> > > <add key="ABCD" value="Hello" /> > > </appSettings> > > </configuration> > > > > What did you have to do in version 1.1 was, like an example: > > > > string xxx = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["ABCD"] > > > > but it's now obsolete; instead you must use: > > > > NameValueCollection AllAppSettings = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings; > > string xxx = AllAppSettings["ABCD"]; > > > > or > > > > NameValueCollection AllAppSettings = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings; > > string xxx = AllAppSettings[0]; > > > > Let me know if you need more. > > > > Regards, Adriano Palmieri. > > Thanks Adriano, but that's not what I'm trying to do though (I've seen a > million examples of doing just that). What I'm trying to do is store > settings somewhere OTHER than the root appSettings branch... So imagine > I want to be able to read/write ot the setting ABCD below, do you know > how I'd do that? > > <configuration> > <settings> > <modules> > <myModule> > <add key="ABCD" value="Hello" /> > </myModule> > </modules> > </settings> > </configuration> > > > I've seen examples of how to do so in .NET 1.1, such as: > http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/app_config.asp > > But I can't find anything on how to do the same using the new > ConfigurationManager class. > > Best Regards, > > James Crosswell > Microforge.net LLC > http://www.microforge.net > Adriano .NET wrote:
> This is another answer Jeff, cause what are you tring to do is not using a Hi Adriano,> config file (in the way it meant to be, Microsoft speaking) but using your Are you certain about what the "standard practices" are here? What you're saying is that Microsoft discourage using the config file in a hierarchical manor and instead that all settings should be read/written in one place without any attempt to grouping or organize these further? I haven't read anything that suggests that anywhere. I've read lots of simple examples of using ConfigurationManager to read/write key/value pairs to the appSettings section of the config file, but that's not to say that the use of groups, hierarchies or sections is frowned upon - in fact there seems to be quite a lot of support for exactly this built into the Configuration namespace - I'm just having difficulty tracking down any useful examples of such. For example, the ConfigurationManager.GetSection method? This was obviously included for some reason no? And it wasn't included because Microsoft discourage it's usage... so there is indeed an "approved" method of accessing Custom Sections built into the framework. Another example is the Configuration.SectionGroups property - it seems clear to me from the very existence of this property that the Microsoft engineers envisaged people breaking the settings that they stored in config files down into more manageable chunks (SectionGroups)... Thanks for your help in any case, but I think I'll keep searching on google. Best Regards, James Crosswell Microforge.net LLC http://www.microforge.net So I finally found some decent documentation on this:
https://secure.codeproject.com/dotnet/mysteriesofconfiguration.asp To be honest, what I was hoping would be a couple of lines of code appears to require writing literally pages and pages of code to define classes and then some fiddling around writing changes (in XML) into the app config file. It's amazing that a task which used to consist of : create instance of ini file class read/write datetime/string/int/bool to particular section release instance of ini file class (literally three lines of code - 6 with a try finally block) has now become a process that an experienced programmer could very well waste 5-10 minutes on... and a process that he/she will undoubtedly have to replicate many times during the development of any project, potentially wasting hours of his/her time. So the new ConfigurationManager class seems to be, in brief, a major disappointment in terms of it's versatility and usability. It's quite nice if all you want to do is store a name/value pair or a ConnectionString but as soon as you want to organize your configuration information (even just into sections like with ini files) it chokes productivity completely. Best Regards, James Crosswell Microforge.net LLC http://www.microforge.net I think I've finally nutted it out. The link in the post above describes
a pretty full/complete way of building a set of classes to give you strongly typed access to config information - but this isn't strictly necessary. The following code can be used to get at any xpath section in the App.config XML configuration file: NameValueCollection modConfig = (NameValueCollection)ConfigurationManager.GetSection("modules/admin"); Then all that needs to be done is to add the following to the config file: <configSections> <sectionGroup name="modules"> <section name="admin" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler" allowLocation="true" allowDefinition="Everywhere"/> </sectionGroup> </configSections> <modules> <admin> <add key="SomeProperty" value="Foo" /> </admin> </modules> Basically, this makes use of the existing NameValueSectionHandler which avoids the need to write your own handler, so the upside is that it saves writing pages and pages of code and allows the use of adhoc settings in a custom section. The down side is that it only handles string values, so it's not strongly typed. Best Regards, James Crosswell Microforge.net LLC http://www.microforge.net  |
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