Is there any way to load settings from a different file other than the default App.config
file at runtime? I'd like to do this after the default config file is loaded.
I use the Settings.Settings
GUI in Visual Studio to create my App.config
file for me. The config file ends up looking like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<configSections>
<sectionGroup name="applicationSettings" type="System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsGroup, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" >
<section name="SnipetTester.Properties.Settings" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="false" />
</sectionGroup>
</configSections>
<applicationSettings>
<SnipetTester.Properties.Settings>
<setting name="SettingSomething" serializeAs="String">
<value>1234</value>
</setting>
</SnipetTester.Properties.Settings>
</applicationSettings>
</configuration>
In code, I'm able to access the settings like this:
Console.WriteLine("Default setting value: " + Properties.Settings.Default.SettingSomething);
The idea is that when the application is run, I should be able to specify a config file at run time and have the application load the config file into the Properties.Settings.Default
object instead of using the default app.config
file. The formats of the config files would be the same, but the values of the settings would be different.
I know of a way to do this with the ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(configFile);
. However, in the tests that I've run, it doesn't update the Properties.Settings.Default
object to reflect the new values from the config file.
After thinking about this a bit longer, I've been able to come up with a solution that I like a little better. I'm sure it has some pitfalls, but I think it'll work for what I need it to do.
Essentially, the Properties.Settings
class is automatically generated by Visual Studio; it generates the code for the class for you. I was able to find where the code was generated and add a few function calls to load a config file on its own. Here's my addition:
internal sealed partial class Settings : global::System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsBase
{
//Parses a config file and loads its settings
public void Load(string filename)
{
System.Xml.Linq.XElement xml = null;
try
{
string text = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(filename);
xml = System.Xml.Linq.XElement.Parse(text);
}
catch
{
//Pokemon catch statement (gotta catch 'em all)
//If some exception occurs while loading the file,
//assume either the file was unable to be read or
//the config file is not in the right format.
//The xml variable will be null and none of the
//settings will be loaded.
}
if(xml != null)
{
foreach(System.Xml.Linq.XElement currentElement in xml.Elements())
{
switch (currentElement.Name.LocalName)
{
case "userSettings":
case "applicationSettings":
foreach (System.Xml.Linq.XElement settingNamespace in currentElement.Elements())
{
if (settingNamespace.Name.LocalName == "SnipetTester.Properties.Settings")
{
foreach (System.Xml.Linq.XElement setting in settingNamespace.Elements())
{
LoadSetting(setting);
}
}
}
break;
default:
break;
}
}
}
}
//Loads a setting based on it's xml representation in the config file
private void LoadSetting(System.Xml.Linq.XElement setting)
{
string name = null, type = null, value = null;
if (setting.Name.LocalName == "setting")
{
System.Xml.Linq.XAttribute xName = setting.Attribute("name");
if (xName != null)
{
name = xName.Value;
}
System.Xml.Linq.XAttribute xSerialize = setting.Attribute("serializeAs");
if (xSerialize != null)
{
type = xSerialize.Value;
}
System.Xml.Linq.XElement xValue = setting.Element("value");
if (xValue != null)
{
value = xValue.Value;
}
}
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(name) == false &&
string.IsNullOrEmpty(type) == false &&
string.IsNullOrEmpty(value) == false)
{
switch (name)
{
//One of the pitfalls is that everytime you add a new
//setting to the config file, you will need to add another
//case to the switch statement.
case "SettingSomething":
this[name] = value;
break;
default:
break;
}
}
}
}
The code I added exposes an Properties.Settings.Load(string filename)
function. The function accepts a config filename as a parameter. It will parse the file and load up any settings it encounters in the config file. To revert back to the original configuration, simply call Properties.Settings.Reload()
.
Hope this might help someone else!