How do I create C# configuration files for each of my classes?

Question

If I go to Project -> Myproject Properties -> Settings I can create a settings file for the entire project. However supposed each class requires its own configuration file. Is there a similar way to do this at the class level?

By way of example suppose I have a parent class Car with subclasses Ford and Honda. I want to have a single property YEAR and a single piece of code for reading the YEAR property. I could do this by having two configuration files with the same YEAR property. If I used Ford.YEAR and Honda.YEAR than I would need two separate pieces of code for parsing the data which could get messy for a large number of classes.

Answer 1

Configuration data is stored for an executable in its config file (which is a single file, regardless of the number of "settings" files in your project) and is not class-specific. You can set naming conventions for your setting keys configuration options related to a class like ClassName.ConfigName.

Answer 2

It's not really designed for that.

You can use the System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings classes to open a file explicitly in code to read your settings from. THis will work however the designer will give you no assistance creating your settings files.

Do you have an issue with class wide settings?

Another way that might help you is to create a custom configuration section which you can put in the file. Then you can split each of your classes settings into it's own configuration section. That might suit your purposes?

Answer 3

You'd have to do it manually, as the others have suggested. However, I'd strongly recommend against this, as I would think you'd have a configuration nightmare to deal with in the end.

Answer 4

As per the other answers, no configuration files are not class specific, you'd be best off creating a class which handles retrieving and setting configuration (a ConfigManager-style interface).

I'd have to ask you though, do you really want configuration per class?

That sounds like a configuration management nightmare scenario. You'd have to entertain scenarios where configuration is either missing or invalid on a per-class basis - and take appropriate steps accordingly.

If your design calls for per-class configuration, perhaps you would be better served storing it in a database or using another medium?

Answer 5

You could to create specific sections for your subclasses: How to: Create Custom Configuration Sections Using ConfigurationSection

When you start a .net application, it takes your entry point assembly configuration file and load it up into memory. But just one.

So, if you have a MyApplication.exe which uses a MyLibrary.dll and both have configuration files, just MyApplication.exe.config will be loaded.

Answer 6

Many of the current IoC containers would allow you to do such a thing through its dependency injection (DI) possibilities. In fact, when XML configuration was all the rage in DI land, you would pretty much get all this out of the box. Today many IoC containers support a programmatic way of setting up dependencies, which you can quite easily hook to whatever XML file you want to provide. Check out this example with the IoC container StructureMap:

IContainer c = new Container();
c.Configure(ce=>
  ce.For(typeof(A)).Use(typeof(A)).WithProperty("Test").EqualTo("Hello"));
var a = c.GetInstance<A>();
Debug.Assert(a.Test == "Hello");

By parsing an XML file containing information like targeted type, name of the property, its value, and then calling the above API, you can get what you want.