Managing A Debug and Release Connection String

Question

What is a good approach to managing a debug and release connection string in a .NET / SQLServer application?

I have two SQL Servers, a production and a build/debug and I

Answer 1

I use a combination of Sameh's and Obalix's method in .net 3.5.

    public static class DataConnection
{
#if LOCALDEV
    public const string Env = "Debug";
#endif
#if STAGING
    public const string Env="Staging";
#endif
#if RELEASE
    public const string Env="Release";
#endif
    private static ConnectionStringSettingsCollection _connections;
    static DataConnection()
    {
        _connections = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings;

    }

    public static string BoloConnectionString
    {
        get
        {
            return _connections["DB1."+Env].ConnectionString;
        }
    }
    public static string AOAConnectionString
    {
        get
        {
            return _connections["DB2."+Env].ConnectionString;
        }
    }
    public static string DocVueConnectionString
    {
        get
        {
            return _connections["DB3."+Env].ConnectionString;
        }
    }
}

Then in my project properties, I define the right conditional compilation symbols. This way I don't have to keep my connection strings hard coded like Sameh's, but the code only looks for the string based on how it was built. This lets me have (if I need to) one config file for all the builds, but in reality I don't deploy the config files in my build process. Although the conditional app.Relase.config stuff for .net 4 looks like the right way to go in the future.

Answer 2

Well perhaps this is a bit outdated, but the ODBC DSN solves this problem quite well -- I still use -- with rigour -- DNS settings to differentiate between production and debug environments.

p.s., I am expecting loads of down-votes, perhaps this will be a gauge of what people think of a level of indirection for database identifiers.

Answer 3

When you open a web project you'll get 2 extra files of the Web.Config out of the box - Web.Debug.config & Web.Release.config.

1.Add your desired connection string to those files with XSLT attributes xdt:Transform="SetAttributes" xdt:Locator="Match(name)"

<connectionStrings>
  <add name="myConnectionString" connectionString="myConnectionString" xdt:Transform="SetAttributes" xdt:Locator="Match(name)" />
</connectionStrings>"

2.Edit your csproj and add a TransformXml target:

<Target Name="TransformActiveConfiguration" Condition="Exists('$(ProjectDir)/Web.$(Configuration).config')" BeforeTargets="Compile" >
    <TransformXml Source="$(ProjectDir)/Web.Config" Transform="$(ProjectDir)/Web.$(Configuration).config" Destination="$(TargetDir)/Web.config" />
</Target>

The second step will make the transform on each build (according to your active configuration) and not only on publish, giving you a better debug experience. I learnt it from this post.