Configuration files with COM

Question

I have an old PowerBuilder application that we are slowly phasing out. We are also moving to a more service orientated. So in order to facilitate this we are using C# COM wrappers to call WCF methods so old direct SQL calls can be slowly removed. We also use the C# COM wrappers when need functionality is needed in the power builder application.

Since we are using COM calls to DLL from PowerBuilder to C#, there is no need for an external executable. This means that a app.config file will not be loaded on its own. At least that is what I noticed. Example: Let's say the main DLL that has the wrapper methods is Wrapper.dll. If I had config named Wrapper.dll.config it would not get loaded when the make my call from PowerBuilder to C#.

The reason I would like to use a config file is because I would like to start using log4net in the C# dlls in order to make debugging easier because it is hard enough with PowerBuilder. There are other reasons that I would like to load configuration files but the easiest to explain is basically it is easier to set up some stuff using a config file.

So is there a way to load a configuration files into the Configuration manager for a COM call?

Thanks Tony

Answer 1

Check out this code from Mike Woodring. I think it will enable you to do what you want.

Answer 2

Nice snippet JP.

By default, Runtime assemblies actually get their config settings from the calling executable's config file. Your snippet allows the loading of one associated with the actually library assembly.

Answer 3

Thanks for the answers, while helpful it was not what I was looking for. The "easiest" to do what I need is to name the config file after the calling applications exe. So if the application's name is test.exe and your C# dll is wrapper.dll, then you would name the config file test.exe.config. Since test.exe in this case is a PowerBuilder application, I can get away with this for now. If it were a .net app (and probably others) it would probably already have a config and thus get in the way.

Tony.