topic Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In in ArcGIS Pro SDK Questions

Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

BillMacPherson — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 12:51:49 GMT

Has anyone successfully used an app.config file with your Add-In? I have added an app.config file to my visual studio pro SDK project and I’m trying to retrieve a connection string from it. The retrieval code always returns null. I don’t know if that’s because it is a UserControl or running inside ArcGIS Pro or what. Any thoughts? Is there a better place to store the connection string?

Visual Studio 2017, .Net Framework 4.6.1, ArcGIS Pro SDK 2.1, SQL Server

app.config

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

</connectionStrings>

</configuration>

c# code

// Assume failure.

string returnValue = null;

// Look for the name in the connectionStrings section.

ConnectionStringSettings settings = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["my_conn"];

// If found, return the connection string.

if (settings != null)

returnValue = settings.ConnectionString;

Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

MKa — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 13:15:00 GMT

On the App.Config do you have the Build Action set as "Content" and the Copy to Output Directory set to "Copy Always"?

I use the App.Config to store my web service URLs in the App Settings section, much like you do for the Connection string above.

Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

BillMacPherson — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 14:22:42 GMT

Thank you for your quick replay. I'm glad to hear that using an app.config is possible.

Ok. I did as you suggested and set the Build Action to "Content" and the Copy to Output Directory to "Copy Always" but it didn't seem to help.

I also tried using <appSettings> and it didn't find that setting either. Is there anything special in the way you Get the setting? I tried in debug mode and as a compiled Add-In with no difference.

connectionString = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("pd_apps_conn");

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="pd_apps_conn" value="Data Source=xx.xx.xx.xxx;Initial Catalog=some_db;User ID=xxx;Password=yyy" />
</appSettings>
<connectionStrings>
<add name="pd_apps" connectionString="Data Source=xx.xx.xx.xxx;Initial Catalog=some_db;User ID=xxx;Password=yyy" />
</connectionStrings>
</configuration>

Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

MKa — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 10:29:24 GMT

Here is what i do in my code. I am sure there is a better way to get the path to your app.config, but here is what i do. i create a settings class that is used to retrieve all the values from the App.Config. I set it up once and I am able to call it from everywhere. In the below example I initialize the appconfig Configuration mConfig and create public procedures to retrieve the values using it and the App.Config. You can change the AppConfigpath below to match where the relative location in the output directory. Hope this helps.

//APP.CONFIG
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <startup>
    <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.6.1"/>
  </startup>
  <appSettings>
    <!--Set the Environment-->
    <add key="Environment" value="TR"/>
   </appSettings>
</configuration>




    //Settings Class used to retrieve values from App.Config
    public static class Settings
    {
        private static Configuration mConfig;

        static Settings()
        {
            initializeAppConfig();
            MessageBox.Show(CurrentApplicationEnvironment);
        }

        //CurrentApplicationEnvironment
        private static string _CurrentApplicationEnvironment;
        public static string CurrentApplicationEnvironment
        {
            get
            {
                if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(_CurrentApplicationEnvironment))
                {
                    _CurrentApplicationEnvironment = mConfig.AppSettings.Settings["Environment"].Value;                    
                }
                return _CurrentApplicationEnvironment;
            }
        }

        const string appConfigPath = "App.Config";
        private static void initializeAppConfig()
        {
            try
            {
                string executingAssemblyFqPath = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
                executingAssemblyFqPath = (System.IO.Path.Combine(executingAssemblyFqPath, appConfigPath));
                if (System.IO.File.Exists(executingAssemblyFqPath))
                {
                    ExeConfigurationFileMap map = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
                    map.ExeConfigFilename = executingAssemblyFqPath;
                    mConfig = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(map, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                
            }
        }

     }
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Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

CharlesMacleod — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 15:25:47 GMT

Please consult: https://github.com/Esri/arcgis-pro-sdk/wiki/ProGuide-Custom-settings. It contains step by step instructions.

Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

BillMacPherson — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 20:25:25 GMT

Thank you M Ka. Your was solution worked very well.

Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

BillMacPherson — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 20:27:58 GMT

Thank you Charles. This is not really the direction I wanted to go for a solution.

Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

arunepuri1 — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 21:31:42 GMT

Hi All,

I am using a config.JSON file with ArcGIS Pro to read some user-defined values (like FME workbench paths and it's related input values). Which can be changeable based on user environment and user requirement.

But when I installed this add-in another system, the user will change the .json file according to his local path and values.

How Can make this .json file external exposed and editable by the user.

Please may I know, how to use/Change content in JSON and add-in should read the data from .json.

Thanks,

Arun E

Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

Wolf — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 20:43:10 GMT

Your requirements are a bit confusing. If you really need "user-defined parameters" then Charlie's step-by-step guide is exactly what you need and simple to implement. Check under this section: https://github.com/Esri/arcgis-pro-sdk/wiki/ProGuide-Custom-settings#step-4-add-a-settingssettings-file-to-define-the-user-preferences-to-arcgis-pros-userconfig-file In essence you use the standard recommended .Net implementation for your user settings (make sure to use user scope). Below is a summary of the essentials:

Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

NareshNagandla — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 15:14:20 GMT

Hi, Are you able to change the settings in App.config after deploying.

I was not able to change the DB connection string after deploying. It still takes the old connection but not new connection string.

Any thoughts on this in using the App.config in arcgis pro add ins???

Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

ArunEpuri — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 15:19:53 GMT

Hi Naresh,

Not found the proper solution and I gone with separate builds for Dev, Test and Prod.

Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

NareshNagandla — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 16:18:28 GMT

Thanks Arun,

I am keeping the app.config in project path and using below code to get the DB conn string and we can change the connection string whenever we need.

string PrjPath = Project.Current.URI;
System.IO.DirectoryInfo directoryInfo = System.IO.Directory.GetParent(PrjPath);
string executingAssemblyFqPath = directoryInfo.FullName;

Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

MarvisKisakye1 — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 18:27:32 GMT

Wolfgang Kaiser‌ I would like to add a new setting of type ArcGIS.Core.Geometry.LinearUnit but it's not available as an option in the settings file designer. Is there a way to add esri types in the .settings file?

Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

Wolf — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 20:52:54 GMT

The easy way is to use the LinearUnit.Wkt property to get the 'well known text' of the linear unit and store the wkt string instead of the LinearUnit type. At the point of retrieval you can then use CreateLinearUnit with the wkt text as an input parameter.

Re: Use an app.config file with an ArcGIS Pro Add-In

Asimov — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 13:47:55 GMT

@BillMacPherson my solution for being able to setup something similar to a Settings.settings .net file (so a typed config settings file) in an addin is to just design it in json: just add a json file in your project and set it up with Build Action "Content" and Copy to output directory "Copy always". In the json you can put any typed variable you need, then you provide a model class where you can deserialize the json into with a very simple function, such as:

internal static ConfigSettings InitializeConfigSettings() { try { //file name is settings.json and it's inside a subfolder named Resources, you can change those name in any way string settingsPath = Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location), "Resources", "settings.json"); if (!File.Exists(settingsPath)) throw new ApplicationException($"Config file <{settingsPath}> not found"); string jsonContent = File.ReadAllText(settingsPath); return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ConfigSettings>(jsonContent); } catch (Exception ex) { Logger.Error("Error retrieving settings", ex); throw; } }

In this example I deserialize json content with newtonsoft.json into my model class, ConfigSettings, which I assign to a static global variable to use across the application.

The nice thing with this solution is that it is quite easy and fast to setup compared to the "official" solution, but still it allows you to change your settings "on the fly": you can do it by extracting the json file from the addin, change what you need, and then copy the file back in the addin (you can do it easily adding .zip extension to the addin). No recompilation is necessary and if you just have a bunch of setting values to change you can do it in a very similar way to what you are accustomed to do in .net applications outside addins.