I have a .net github project that is basically a wrapper around a web API. In the test project, I am calling to the API using an API key. I need to keep this key private, how do I accomplish this in a visual studio project?
In some other projects, like python, I can have git ignore the file (config.py) and use something like config.example.py. But in visual studio's case, the project will not compile because of the missing file Config.cs. What is the proper way to solve this? I'm thinking of using this same method of ignoring the file and have them execute a build script that should rename Config.example.cs to Config.cs?
This is the perfect for .config files. Depending on whether its a web or console application, you will have a web.config or app.config file in your project.
You can use the appSettings section to store your API key.
To make things even easier, you can actually have this section read from another file, ie: specialappsettings.config and then just ignore that single file from your repository.
Modify your web.config (or app.config):
<configuration>
<appSettings file="specialappsettings.config">
</appSettings>
<system.web>
<!-- standard web settings go here -->
</system.web>
</configuration>
Create a new specialappsettings.config file:
<appSettings>
<add key="APIKey" value="YourApiKeyValue" />
<add key="AnotherKey" value="AnotherValue" />
</appSettings>
This can be accessed in your code via:
var apiKey = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["APIKey"];
Notes:
You can keep your settings within the original web.config file as
well but this lets you ignore just the specific settings file from
your git repository without affecting the rest of the project's
necessary configuration details.
The same "key" can be saved in
either file however the external file will override the original
web.config file value.
You are probably looking for the App.config file for a project. It will be copied to <application>.exe.config when you compile it. Users can edit that config file as needed.
In that config file, you can add your API keys:
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="APIKey" value="12345"/>
</appSettings>
</configuration>
Then you can access it from your code using ConfigurationManager.AppSettings:
string apiKey = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["APIKey"];
One option is to use .config files instead of having secret keys hardcoded in sources.
More info Using Settings in C# and step-by-step guide
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="SecretKey" value="0" />
</appSettings>
</configuration>
var secretKey = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("SecretKey");
Perhaps you can store the key outside of the Config.cs file and load it at run time.
Bonus, other people using your code won't have to recompile the project to change to their API key.
Related
I'm currently running a WCF service on localhost, with a web.config file that contains credentials to connect to CRM. The web.config file, which is in the root of the project, contains the appSettings as you'd expect:
<appSettings>
<add key="aspnet:UseTaskFriendlySynchronizationContext" value="true" />
<add key="CrmUrl" value="{removed}"/>
<add key="CrmUser" value="{removed}"/>
<add key="CrmPass" value="{removed}"/>
</appSettings>
I then try to retrieve these values with an initialiser
internal CrmOrganizationServiceContext Crm
{
get
{
return CrmConnectionCreator.CreateConnection(
WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["CrmUrl"],
WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["CrmUser"],
WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["CrmPass"]);
}
}
However, null is being passed through to the CreateConnection method. I did a little digging around google, and most suggestions are regarding using WebConfigurationManager, which I currently am doing. Calling WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration(null) seems to pass me to a web.config file which exists in the Microsoft.NET framework installation folder, when I'm trying to read in configuration settings from the web.config file in my project.
Is WebConfigurationManager looking in the wrong area, and I have to point it to the right location somehow? I have also tried using plain ConfigurationManager.AppSettings but the results are the same.
I'm trying to reference some common config settings between a Windows Service and an ASP.NET MVC website. I am doing this by using the file attribute on appSettings in either the App.config or Web.config (respectively). The file (named common.config) that is being referenced is a linked file in a separate project in the same solution. That common.config is set to Content with Copy Always in both projects.
This stack answer to a similiar question seems to suggest at least for configSource this solution would work. I don't want configSource though as I only want a handful of the properties to be common amongst the two projects. Update: I just tried this, and the configSource also doesn't work. It can't find the config file. This leads me to believe the common.config is not treated as content with copy always.
Example App.config
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<appSettings file="common.config">
<add key="NotCommonKey" value="1"/>
</appSettings>
</configuration>
Example Web.config
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings file="common.config">
<add key="NotCommonKey2" value="2" />
</appSettings>
</configuration>
Example common.config (Content -> Copy Always)
<appSettings>
<add key="CommonKey" value="1" />
</appSettings>
I am using ConfigurationManager / WebConfigurationManager reading from the AppSettings property.
Any ideas why when the common.config is a linked file, it's AppSettings values are not used and when it is not linked it works as normal?
Thanks!
In the Web.Config you must add "bin/" (se example below).
By default the web.config is NOT copied into the bin folder but the file common.config is, therefore you must add the path from web.config. In a non-web project the default behavior is that the App.config is copied to the bin folder with name MyProgram.exe.config and is in the same directory as common.config.
<appSettings file="bin/common.config">
The idea of using "bin/..." is good but leads to an error saying that "/" is an invalid character in the resulting virtual path.
The proper solution is tu use "bin...".
Cheers
I use this to access another .exe's config file, not sure whether it will work with a MVC project, but this might get you closer:
string proj2Exe = #"C:\projects\proj2\bin\Debug\proj2.exe";
Configuration proj2Config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(proj2Exe);
string mysetting = proj2Config .AppSettings.Settings["ThatSetting"].Value;
I'm using .NET MVC
I have about 10 properties I want to store in a configuration file (.config etc.), related to environment/deployment stuff, + other things for quick changes without doing dLL deploys.
I'm using Team foundation service for CI builds etc, and my web.config is obviously under version-contrl.
What I'd like to do is have a settings.config (that's not in version control) file to store these, am I able to do this?
Or does it need to be in web.config?
To answer the title question, yes you can store settings in a separate config file, to do so you need to define the configSource property of appSettings element
E.g.
<appSettings configSource="settings.config" />
and in the settings.config file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<appSettings>
<add key="settingKey" value="environmentValue" />
</appSettings>
However, for the sake of environment specific settings, you may want to look at config transforms. Setting up a transform config for each environment then deploying to that environment with the specified build configuration.
E.g. Web.Dev.config (provided you have setup a 'Dev' build configuration)
<configuration xmlns:xdt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/XML-Document-Transform">
<appSettings>
<add key="settingKey"
value="devEnvironmentValue"
xdt:Transform="SetAttributes" xdt:Locator="Match(key)"/>
</appSettings>
</configuration>
More details of build configuration and config transforms here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd465318(v=vs.100).aspx
Or you could take advantage of TFS features and parameterize the environment variables, I don't have a lot of experience with this, but the following should help: http://ig.obsglobal.com/2013/02/tfs-and-continuous-deployment-part-4-parameterized-deployments/
I'm using this code (in my DAL project):
ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["server"]
to access appsettings section in web.config file (from web project):
<appSettings>
<add key="server" value="server.name.com"/>
<add key="database" value="databasename"/>
</appSettings>
and in a Web.Debug.config I'm using a following transformation
<add key="server" value="MY-LAPTOP"
xdt:Locator="Match(key)" xdt:Transform="Replace"/>
after that when I start application the config file isn't transformed. First line of code returns the nontransformed infromation. What's wrong with the code? What am i missing?
I have tried to publish it and when I check config file everything is ok like it is ment to be.
The web.config transformation is only perform during the publish process. You can still enable it on every build, when you it F5, see
ASP.NET Web Projects: web.debug.config & web.release.config
SlowCheetah - XML Transforms
Making Visual Studio 2010 Web.config Transformations Apply on Every Build
It's an MSBuild task to add.
I discovered few days ago that we can use Configuration files in .NET and trying to use it in my applications.
First of all, configure correctly the use of configuration file is really borring :
Configuration file should have the same name as the application (understandable)
Then think to add the System.Configuration reference (understandable too)
When file is added, go in it's properties and change it to copy the file in output directory (less understandable).
Configuration file isn't taken into account in debug mode (because of *.vhosts.exe)
It takes me time to understand why this file wasn't taken into account...
So question is pretty simple, how can I fix this and use configuration files in Debug Mode ?
I would use it in order to configure my trace switches.
Here is my App.config file :
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="A" value="B"/>
</appSettings>
<system.diagnostics>
<switches>
<add name="myFirstSwitch" value="1" />
<add name="MySecondSwitch" value="Error" />
</switches>
</system.diagnostics>
</configuration>
Thanks.
I think you created your config file the wrong way, the right way is:
On the Project menu, click Add New Item. The Add New Item dialog box
appears.
Select the Application Configuration
File template and then click Add. A
file named App.config is added
to your project.
This config file is automatically copied to the build folder when you build the project and works in both Debug and Release mode.