Use of Configurationsettings or XMLDocument class ????

[serge calderara]

Dear all,

I have define a configuration file for my application with
different section groups and settings belonging to each
individual group like as follow :

=====================================================
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<configSections>
<!-- Definition of the User Management section -->
<sectionGroup name="UserManagement">
<section name="settings"

type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler" />
</sectionGroup>

<!-- Definition of the Configuration Mangement
section -->
<sectionGroup name="ConfigurationManagement">
<section name="settings"

type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler" />
<section name="database"

type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler" />
</sectionGroup>

<!-- Definition of the Language Management section -->
<sectionGroup name="LanguageManagement">
<section name="settings"

type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler" />
</sectionGroup>

<!-- Definition of the HMI builder Management section --<sectionGroup name="HMIBuilder">
<section name="settings"

type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler" />
</sectionGroup>
</configSections>

<!-- Definition of the User management assembly setting
Parameter define in this section are only used by
UserMangement -->
<UserManagement>
<settings>
<add key="LastLoginName"
value="calderara" />
<add key="RememberEntry" value="1" />
</settings>
</UserManagement>

<!-- Definition of the Configuration management
assembly setting
Parameter define in this section are only used by
UserMangement -->
<ConfigurationManagement>
<settings>
<add key="ConfigSaved" value="yes" />
<add key="AccessProviderDNS"
value="Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" />
</settings>
<database>
<add key="Path" value="E:\Configuration data
base" />
<add key="DNS"
value="Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" />
<add key="sqlserver" value="true" />
</database>
</ConfigurationManagement>

<!-- Definition of the Language management assembly setting
Parameter define in this section are only used by
UserMangement -->
<LanguageManagement>
<settings>
<add key="Default" value="English" />
</settings>
</LanguageManagement>

<!-- Definition of the HMI builder assembly setting
Parameter define in this section are only used by
UserMangement -->
<HMIBuilder>
<settings>
<add key="XPos" value="100" />
</settings>
</HMIBuilder>

<!-- Definition of the application setting
Find here any parameters for the global application
startup phase
key : represent the name of the key to scan
value: represent the actual value of the found key --<appSettings>
<add key="LogFile" value="TraceLog.txt" />
<add key="LogFilePath" value="C:" />
</appSettings>
<!-- Definition of the tracing operation
bActivate : Set tracing to ON or OFF (1=ON, 0=OFF)
TraceSeverity : define what type of message level
should be trace based
on TraceLevel (none, info, warning,fatal, verbose =
0,1,2,3,4)
Note that a value of 3 will trace also level 1 and
2 -->
<system.diagnostics>
<switches>
<add name="Enabled" value="1" />
<add name="TraceSeverity" value="1" />
</switches>
</system.diagnostics>
</configuration>

What is the best way to access and return those different
settings ?
Should I go with ConfigurationSettings class or use of
XMLDocument class ?

If A request is send to retrive parameter for a group I
should be able to rertreve all entry at once even if it
has different section.

thanks for your comments
regards

 

[Steven Wood]

Hi Serge,

What is the best way to access and return those different
settings ?
Should I go with ConfigurationSettings class or use of
XMLDocument class ?

Go for the ConfigurationSettings class, e.g.

NameValueCollection userManagement;
userManagement = ConfigurationSettings.GetConfig("UserManagement")
as NameValueCollection;

and dereference like this:

userManagement["LastLoginName"]...

I think this is easier than using the XMLDocument class.

If A request is send to retrive parameter for a group I
should be able to rertreve all entry at once even if it
has different section.

Through the collection above you can retrieve any value in that group.

 

[calderara serge]

Thanks for your answer,

I go with Configurationsetting class for the time beeing.
But then I have one question:

How to know if the request parameter is valid ?

Exaemple:
userManagement = ConfigurationSettings.GetConfig("UserManagement")

I need first to be sure that the section "UserMangement is still present
and if not return an error
or by this :

userManagement["LastLoginName"]...

I need toi be sure first that LastLoginname is really present and if not
return an erro as well.

What is the way to identify that a section or group is present?

thanks for your answer
regards

 

[Steven Wood]

Hi Serge,

userManagement["LastLoginName"]...

I need toi be sure first that LastLoginname is really present and if not
return an erro as well.

What is the way to identify that a section or group is present?

Well, you could check for a null and for extra safety use a try..catch
handler.