Add hardcoded configuration without app.config file to some assembly

Question

I need to add configuration information to the assembly itself without including its app.config file with it. How can i do it?

EDIT: I need something like this

 string config = @"<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
                   <configuration> 
                    .
                    .
                    .
                    .
                   </configuration>";

Set this hardcoded string configuration as current assembly configuration

Do you want configuration embedded in the assembly ? That is called constants :-) — driis, Oct 16 '11 at 16:55
The 'assembly' tag is for low level programming, not for .NET assemblies. — harold, Oct 16 '11 at 17:55

Yannick Motton · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-16T17:53:16.283

Configuration settings be it user or application settings have their default values "hardcoded" in the assembly by default. They can be overriden by including an app.config, or modifying user settings at runtime and saving to the user config file.

After creating project settings (in project properties and go to the "Settings" tab), a Settings class is generated with static properties which will have the default value you configured.

They are accessible throughout your assembly like so:

Assert.AreEqual(Properties.Settings.MySetting, "MyDefaultValue");

These default values can be overridden via the app.config:

<applicationSettings>
    <MyProject.Properties.Settings>
        <setting name="MySetting" serializeAs="String">
            <value>MyDefaultValue</value>
        </setting>
    </MyProject.Properties.Settings>
</applicationSettings>

To answer your question: You can omit including the app.config from your application deployment, the defaults that you provided when configuring the settings are hardcoded.

Edit:

Just noticed you actually want to read the entire app.config from your assembly. A possible approach could be the following:

// 1. Create a temporary file
string fileName = Path.GetTempFileName();
// 2. Write the contents of your app.config to that file
File.WriteAllText(fileName, Properties.Settings.Default.DefaultConfiguration);
// 3. Set the default configuration file for this application to that file
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetData("APP_CONFIG_FILE", fileName);
// 4. Refresh the sections you wish to reload
ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection("AppSettings");
ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection("connectionStrings");
// ...

Sadly not that i have found. You could use linq to xml to walk your config file though — Yannick Motton, Oct 16 '11 at 18:00

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:07

0

you can have a custom XML file where you store your settings and then you set it as Embedded resource so it will be available inside the exe or dll.

see here: How can I retrieve an embedded xml resource? for an example on how to read it at runtime

Edit: and to load it as custom configuration file check here: Loading custom configuration files

edited May 23 '17 at 12:07

Community

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answered Oct 16 '11 at 16:56

Davide Piras

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How to set it as assembly's config file? – Saw Oct 16 '11 at 16:59

Add hardcoded configuration without app.config file to some assembly

2 Answers2

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