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Time: 00:42 - Sep 20, 2006     Asked by: PeterNZ      Status: Answered      Points: 75   

Ho to configure a DLL

Ok, I have the following scenario:
I developped a .Net library which wraps functions provided by a back end system. This DLL uses data such as connection strings and user credentials etc. This is a generic DLL which can be used in all sorts of situations. We are currently using it from a web service.

My problem now is, to find the best approach in order to read config information i.e. connection string. The apporach has to be flexible. In case of the web service usage, should it read the configuration from the web.config? And how do I tell the DLL where the web.config is, without having the location of the web service hard coded? And what if the DLL is used by a windows application? The DLL doesn't know from where it is used! Should I rather have a manual process i.e. have my customs defined dll.config?

I am not after coding examples since I know how to read from config files. I am looking for a best approach or pattern to use.

What are your thoughts? How do you solve such a situation?

Cheers & Thanks

Peter

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Hi Peter,
If you tell the "users" of the dll to place the configuration settings in the app.config or the web.config, don´t you always have access to the configuration settings without having to know where they are located physically?

Expert:

Anpanman

Date:

Sep 20, 2006

Time:

11:20

 

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Hi Anpanman, thank you for your reply!

Yes, this is true for the <appSettings> but you can't use i.e. the <connectionStrings> section of the web config, since there is none in the App.Config etc.

The web.config and the app.config are in some parts different. This is something I always wonder about, Why doesn't Microsoft put everyting on one common level. Interchangeability seems to be the big buzz word in most of their areas but then you get different structures of configuration files etc. This is my problem. For web pages you are supposed to have your connectionStrings in the connectionStrings section, for windows apps they are in the appSettings section etc.

And why not having a MyDll.app.config file which could be deployed with teh library. Sorry, I start whinging and whining here!

Cheers

Peter

Expert:

PeterNZ

Date:

Sep 20, 2006

Time:

22:15

 

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Perhaps instead of using the predefined connectionStrings section you could just make your own application-specific tags. Then they could be included in both the web.config and the app.config.
And yes, I agree with you on the criticism of the configuration files not being structured equally.
Let me know, how you solve this in the end.

cheers,
Anpanman

Expert:

Anpanman

Date:

Sep 21, 2006

Time:

14:59

 

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Hi Anpanman,

sorry that I was a bit quiet inthe last couple of weeks.

I solved the problem exactly as you described it above. I bit the bullet and avoided to use the connectionString section. I created my own key/value pairs.

Cheers

Peter

Expert:

PeterNZ

Date:

Feb 19, 2007

Time:

18:06

 

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Question Answered

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Anpanman: 75

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