During a web project lifecycle, we encounter always the same problem when deploiement is required in development environment(Server A + DB A), Receipt/Qualif (Server B + DB B) and production (Server C + DB C without taking care of web farming). Many developpers choose to create one web.config for each environment; not a bad choice but a permanent synchro is required when adding reference or others commons configurations.
I was looking to improve this system to minimize the synchro time between each web.config file and find a simple tips to exclude the specific data from a web.config : the configSource property.
This way, it’s possible to write a web.config like that :
<?xml version=“1.0“?>
<configuration>
<configSections>
<sectionGroup name=“system.web.extensions“ type=“System.Web.Configuration.SystemWebExtensionsSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35“>
<sectionGroup name=“scripting“ type=“System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35“>
<section name=“scriptResourceHandler“ type=“System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingScriptResourceHandlerSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35“ requirePermission=“false“ allowDefinition=“MachineToApplication“/>
<sectionGroup name=“webServices“ type=“System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingWebServicesSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35“>
<section name=“jsonSerialization“ type=“System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingJsonSerializationSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35“ requirePermission=“false“ allowDefinition=“Everywhere“/>
<section name=“profileService“ type=“System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingProfileServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35“ requirePermission=“false“ allowDefinition=“MachineToApplication“/>
<section name=“authenticationService“ type=“System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingAuthenticationServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35“ requirePermission=“false“ allowDefinition=“MachineToApplication“/>
<section name=“roleService“ type=“System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingRoleServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35“ requirePermission=“false“ allowDefinition=“MachineToApplication“/>
</sectionGroup>
</sectionGroup>
</sectionGroup>
</configSections>
<appSettings configSource=“Config\ApplicationSettings.Config“/>
<connectionStrings configSource=“Config\ConnectionStrings.Config“/>
…
and simply create a file named ApplicationSettings.Config(the name can be changed) in my folder Config. This one contains :
<?xml version=“1.0“?>
<appSettings>
<!– DEV –>
<add key=“Key1“ value=“Value1 for Environment 1“/>
…
Thus we only need to create for each environnement a file named ApplicationSettings.Config with the specific parameters. It reduces the number of parameters to the minimum.
When deploying, you should only copy the web.config and the appropriated ApplicationSettings.Config.
In my example, we can see an other configSource for connectionString based on the same principle. The connectionString section is now describe in another file :
<?xml version=“1.0“?>
<connectionStrings>
<add name=“DB1“ connectionString=“Application Name=APP1;Data Source=DB1;Initial Catalog=APP1_Dev;Persist Security Info=True;“ providerName=“System.Data.SqlClient“/>
</connectionStrings>
