Master web config

Guys,

We have a deployment with 4 web.config files that need editing to get from development environment to live/test.

I am looking for a method of centralising the lines that need changing in the web.configs into a master file. I know you can do this within app.settings using the "file=" attribute of the appSettings section... but is there a way to do this with the other settings without changes to code?

The connection string is another example. I could ask the developers to recode any of these variables into app.settings, but there are things suchs as these that I dont think are editable...

<client>
<endpoint address="http://1.1.1.1/Test.Part1.Securities/SecurityService.svc"


Any suggestions please? So far, all install issues have been down to typos in all the web.config edits. Could I feasible direct the developers to put EVERYTHING configurable in the app.settings section then use the file redirect?

Bob

Are you using Visual Studio 2010? There is a new feature for web.config transformations that I think would be a good fit for you, you can find information about that here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd465326.aspx

There is no way that I am aware of, to extract sections into other files other than AppSettings. How about creating an installer for your application, with a custom input screen to get the connection string from the user, you could then attempt to connect to it, and if it fails, prompt the user to correct it, and try again.

Gary