Amending Web Config for Test Fixtures

Question

I'm using CassiniDevLib to host an MVC app for integration testing.

In order to do it I need to amend some config settings on the web server so they match the integration testing environment, first one being the connection string so it points to the test database.

I know I can have two copies of the web.config file and rename them but I was wondering if there was a more elegant way. ie a way to amend the settings in code as part of the Test Fixture setup. The challenge being that I need to access the web server process from my test ficture process

Would appreciate any thoughts on this.

Answer 1

I assume that you are using Visual Studio 2010. In that, you have a feature called as Config Transforms. Basically you can have multiple config file for each build environment. You can have your own custom build env. You have a new one by going to Configuration Manager and adding a new one.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdevtools/archive/2009/05/04/web-deployment-web-config-transformation.aspx

you can search on the internet for Config Transforms, if you need more examples.