How to use different .settings files for different environments in .NET?

Question

.NET allows you to use .settings files to manage application settings. I would like to store Production, Development and Test settings separately in a way that I can do somethi

Answer 1

Just an idea but it may work...

• You'll need N+2 settings files (N different builds; 2 masters) with containing the same keys.

• Clear out the "Custom Tool" property for all of them but one of the masters (so only one the master generates).

• Modify the pre-build script for each release to copy the appropriate settings file contents into the build-master file.

• Modify the post-build script to copy the secondary master file contents back in to the original master file.

Note: If you can work with your source control provider in the pre- and post-build scripts, you don't need a secondary master -- you can just check out in the pre-build and undo check out in the post-build. However, this may cause issues in a continuous integration environment since a locked file would require the build to fail.

I've also never done this; though there are times I wished there was a more up-front way of doing something like this in VS.