App.Config Transformation for projects which are n

Question

For Visual Studio 2010 Web based application we have Config Transformation features by which we can maintain multiple configuration files for different environments. But the same feature is not available for App.Config files for Windows Services/WinForms or Console Application.

There is a workaround available as suggested here: Applying XDT magic to App.Config.

However it is not straightforward and requires a number of steps. Is there an easier way to achieve the same for app.config files?

Answer 1

In my experience, the things I need to make environment-specific are things like connection strings, appsettings and often smpt settings. The config system allows to specify these things in separate files. So you can use this in your app.config/web.config:

 <appSettings configSource="appsettings.config" />
 <connectionStrings configSource="connection.config" />
 <system.net>
    <mailSettings>
       <smtp configSource="smtp.config"/>
    </mailSettings>
 </system.net>

What I typically do is to put these config-specific sections in separate files, in a subfolder called ConfigFiles (either in the solution root or at the project level, depends). I define a file per configuration, e.g. smtp.config.Debug and smtp.config.Release.

Then you can define a pre-build event like so:

copy $(ProjectDir)ConfigFiles\smtp.config.$(ConfigurationName) $(TargetDir)smtp.config

In team development, you can tweak this further by including the %COMPUTERNAME% and/or %USERNAME% in the convention.

Of course, this implies that the target files (x.config) should NOT be put in source control (since they are generated). You should still add them to the project file and set their output type property to 'copy always' or 'copy if newer' though.

Simple, extensible, and it works for all types of Visual Studio projects (console, winforms, wpf, web).

Answer 2

Install "Configuration Transform Tool" in Visual Studio from Marketplace and restart VS. You will be able to see menu preview transform for app.config as well.

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=GolanAvraham.ConfigurationTransform

Answer 3

Inspired by Oleg and others in this question, I took the solution https://stackoverflow.com/a/5109530/2286801 a step further to enable the following.

• Works with ClickOnce
• Works with Setup and Deployment projects in VS 2010
• Works with VS2010, 2013, 2015 (didn't test 2012 although should work as well).
• Works with Team Build. (You must install either A) Visual Studio or B) Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets and Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.dll)

This solution works by performing the app.config transformation before the app.config is referenced for the first time in the MSBuild process. It uses an external targets file for easier management across multiple projects.

Instructions:

Similar steps to the other solution. I've quoted what remains the same and included it for completeness and easier comparison.

0. Add a new file to your project called AppConfigTransformation.targets

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <!-- Transform the app config per project configuration.-->
  <PropertyGroup>
    <!-- This ensures compatibility across multiple versions of Visual Studio when using a solution file.
         However, when using MSBuild directly you may need to override this property to 11.0 or 12.0 
         accordingly as part of the MSBuild script, ie /p:VisualStudioVersion=11.0;
         See http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archive/2012/08/22/visual-studio-project-compatability-and-visualstudioversion.aspx -->
    <VisualStudioVersion Condition="'$(VisualStudioVersion)' == ''">10.0</VisualStudioVersion>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets" />

  <Target Name="SetTransformAppConfigDestination" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild" 
          Condition="exists('app.$(Configuration).config')">
    <PropertyGroup>
      <!-- Force build process to use the transformed configuration file from now on. -->
      <AppConfig>$(IntermediateOutputPath)$(TargetFileName).config</AppConfig>
    </PropertyGroup>
    <Message Text="AppConfig transformation destination: = $(AppConfig)" />
  </Target>

  <!-- Transform the app.config after the prepare for build completes. -->
  <Target Name="TransformAppConfig" AfterTargets="PrepareForBuild" Condition="exists('app.$(Configuration).config')">
    <!-- Generate transformed app config in the intermediate directory -->
    <TransformXml Source="app.config" Destination="$(AppConfig)" Transform="app.$(Configuration).config" />
  </Target>

</Project>

1. Add an XML file for each configuration to the project.

Typically you will have Debug and Release configurations so name your files App.Debug.config and App.Release.config. In my project, I created a configuration for each kind of enironment so you might want to experiment with that.

2. Unload project and open .csproj file for editing

Visual Studio allows you to edit .csproj right in the editor—you just need to unload the project first. Then right-click on it and select Edit .csproj.

3. Bind App.*.config files to main App.config

Find the project file section that contains all App.config and App.*.config references and replace as follows. You'll notice we use None instead of Content.

<ItemGroup>
  <None Include="app.config"/>
  <None Include="app.Production.config">
    <DependentUpon>app.config</DependentUpon>
  </None>
  <None Include="app.QA.config">
    <DependentUpon>app.config</DependentUpon>
  </None>
  <None Include="app.Development.config">
    <DependentUpon>app.config</DependentUpon>
  </None>
</ItemGroup>

4. Activate transformations magic

In the end of file after

<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />

and before final

</Project>

insert the following XML:

<Import Project="AppConfigTransformation.targets" />

Done!

Answer 4

I solve this problem with this tool http://ctt.codeplex.com/. I use it with CCNet/nAnt script for making packages.

Answer 5

proposed solution will not work when a class library with config file is referenced from another project (in my case it was Azure worker project library). It will not copy correct transformed file from obj folder into bin\##configuration-name## folder. To make it work with minimal changes, you need to change AfterCompile target to BeforeCompile:

<Target Name="BeforeCompile" Condition="exists('app.$(Configuration).config')">

Answer 6

I tried several solutions and here is the simplest I personally found.
Dan pointed out in the comments that the original post belongs to Oleg Sych—thanks, Oleg!

Here are the instructions:

1. Add an XML file for each configuration to the project.

Typically you will have Debug and Release configurations so name your files App.Debug.config and App.Release.config. In my project, I created a configuration for each kind of environment, so you might want to experiment with that.

2. Unload project and open .csproj file for editing

Visual Studio allows you to edit .csproj files right in the editor—you just need to unload the project first. Then right-click on it and select Edit <ProjectName>.csproj.

3. Bind App.*.config files to main App.config

Find the project file section that contains all App.config and App.*.config references. You'll notice their build actions are set to None:

<None Include="App.config" />
<None Include="App.Debug.config" />
<None Include="App.Release.config" />

First, set build action for all of them to Content.
Next, make all configuration-specific files dependant on the main App.config so Visual Studio groups them like it does designer and code-behind files.

Replace XML above with the one below:

<Content Include="App.config" />
<Content Include="App.Debug.config" >
  <DependentUpon>App.config</DependentUpon>
</Content>
<Content Include="App.Release.config" >
  <DependentUpon>App.config</DependentUpon>
</Content>

4. Activate transformations magic

In the end of file after

<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />

and before final

</Project>

insert the following XML:

  <UsingTask TaskName="TransformXml" AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.dll" />
  <Target Name="CoreCompile" Condition="exists('app.$(Configuration).config')">
    <!-- Generate transformed app config in the intermediate directory -->
    <TransformXml Source="app.config" Destination="$(IntermediateOutputPath)$(TargetFileName).config" Transform="app.$(Configuration).config" />
    <!-- Force build process to use the transformed configuration file from now on. -->
    <ItemGroup>
      <AppConfigWithTargetPath Remove="app.config" />
      <AppConfigWithTargetPath Include="$(IntermediateOutputPath)$(TargetFileName).config">
        <TargetPath>$(TargetFileName).config</TargetPath>
      </AppConfigWithTargetPath>
    </ItemGroup>
  </Target>

Now you can reload the project, build it and enjoy App.config transformations!

FYI

Make sure that your App.*.config files have the right setup like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration xmlns:xdt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/XML-Document-Transform">
     <!--magic transformations here-->
</configuration>