Configuration file reading. Best practice
- by Andrew Florko
Application stores configuration data in custom section of configuration file. This information is used all over the application.
Nowadays I use helper static class to to provide access like this (some code omitted or simplified):
[XmlRoot("webSiteSection")]
public class WebSiteConfig : IConfigurationSectionHandler
{
public static WebSiteConfig Current
{
get
{
if (_current == null)
_current = (WebSiteConfig) ConfigurationManager.GetSection("webSiteSection");
return _current;
}
}
[XmlElement("section1")]
public Section1 Section1 { get; set; }
[XmlElement("section2")]
public Section2 Section2 { get; set; }
...
public object Create(object parent, object configContext, XmlNode section)
{
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(WebSiteConfig));
return serializer.Deserialize(new XmlNodeReader(section));
}
}
Then I use it like this
<%: WebSiteConfig.Current.Section1.Value1 %>
<%: WebSiteConfig.Current.Section1.Value2 %>
What do you think of it? I find it usable because it keeps code simple, but also confused as IConfigurationSectionHandler is deprecated since .NET Framework 2.0
