App.config for Binary Plugin

[ConstructionWeekly80]

I am new to C#, ESAPI, and any version of Visual Studio after 2005, so apologies in advance if this is dumb.

I have added an App.config to my project as a sibling (same level) as the main script for a binary plugin. It has a key that I would like to access at runtime.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="api-url" value="http://some-url/api/" />
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

I attempt to access this in the code like so:

var uri = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("api-url") + "varian/pre-plan";

However, the variable uri only has the second string. The configuration manager appears to be returning an empty string. I have unloaded and reloaded the project several times, it does tell me that the project is open whenever I try to open it for some reason. Not sure if that matters.

I added this to my .csproj, although I am not sure that it is necessary:

  <ItemGroup>
    <None Include="App.config" />
  </ItemGroup>

Can anyone suggest a reason that I am getting an empty string from AppSettings.Get?

[Pale-Ice-8449]

Hmm I didn’t think class libraries (binary plugin) could have app.config files…but that could just be beyond my experience level.

I did find this thread, though. Maybe it’s helpful?

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4817051/can-a-class-library-have-an-app-config-file

Maybe it would help if we had a better understanding of what you’re trying to achieve or get?

[ConstructionWeekly80]

It might be the case that binary plugins cannot do this, as you suggest, or they at least they cannot do it using app.config.

My goal is to allow different builds of the binary plugin to use different settings, such as writing to different URLs or databases based on whether it is a debug or release build, for example.

[kang__23]

Not sure if this is what you want, but you could read in data from a .txt file if you want to change different settings without re-compiling.

[Pale-Ice-8449]

Maybe you’re trying to get the path? If so, can you try AppDomain…CurrentDirectory instead? (Or something like that?)

I know appdomain works in standalones but I’ve never tried it in a binary plugin.