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Formo

Formo allows you to use your configuration file as a dynamic object. Turn your web.config or application settings into a rich, dynamic object.

How to use it

Given you have a few of the following settings in your app.config file, you can new up a Configuration object and call those settings directly through a property.

The settings

<appSettings>
    <add key="RetryAttempts" value="5" />
    <add key="ApplicationBuildDate" value="11/4/1999 6:23 AM" />
</appSettings>

The code

dynamic config = new Configuration();
var retryAttempts1 = config.RetryAttempts;                 // returns 5 as a string
var retryAttempts2 = config.RetryAttempts(10);             // returns 5 if found in config, else 10
var retryAttempts3 = config.RetryAttempts(userInput, 10);  // returns 5 if it exists in config, else userInput if not null, else 10

Both of the values userInput and 10 will be ignored if the value has already been set in your file.

The Configuration class also has the ability to call dynamic methods with type arguments. (I know, right?!) This lets you call your property and cast it to the type of your choice.

dynamic config = new Configuration();
var appBuildDate = config.ApplicationBuildDate<DateTime>();

Specifying Culture

If you have dates in your settings file that need to be bound to a specific culture, you can do this on creation of the Configuration class.

dynamic config = new Configuration(new CultureInfo("de"));

Property Binding

You can also use Formo to bind settings values to properties on an object:

given:

<appSettings>
    <add key="SessionTimeout" value="20" />
    <add key="WebsiteSettingsSiteTitle" value="Cat Facts" />
</appSettings>

and...

public class WebsiteSettings
{
    public int SessionTimeout { get; set; }
    public string SiteTitle { get; set; }
}

then...

dynamic config = new Configuration();
var settings = config.Bind<WebsiteSettings>();

resulting in...

settings.SessionTimeout = 20;
settings.SiteTitle = "Cat Facts";

Configuration Section

You can use Formo on Configuration Sections

<configuration>
    <configSections>
        <section name="customSection" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler"/>
    </configSections>
    <customSection>
        <add key="ApplicationBuildDate" value="11/4/1999 6:23 AM" />
    </customSection>
    <appSettings>
    </appSettings>
</configuration>

This still works from the previous example:

dynamic config = new Configuration("customSection");
var appBuildDate = config.ApplicationBuildDate<DateTime>();

Remark the name of the section to load on the Configuration creation. So far the only suported sections are based on System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler.

The Property Binding feature also works on sections.

Connection Strings

You can also access connection strings by name like so:

dynamic config = new Configuration();
var devConnection = config.ConnectionString.Development;
var prodConnection = config.ConnectionString.Production;

Given that there are connection strings in the configuration that matches the following config:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
  <!-- stuff -->
  <connectionStrings>
    <add connectionString="<some dev connection...>" name="Development"/>
    <add connectionString="<the production connection...>" name="Production"/>
  </connectionStrings>
  <!-- more stuff -->
</configuration>

Connection Strings With Property Bindings

when using Formo to automatically bind settings values to properties on an object as described here, connection strings are automatically bound if the object contains properties of type "ConnectionStringSettings" :

given:

<appSettings>
    <add key="SessionTimeout" value="20" />
    <add key="WebsiteSettingsSiteTitle" value="Cat Facts" />
</appSettings>
  <!-- stuff -->
  <connectionStrings>
    <add connectionString="<some dev connection...>" name="Development"/>
    <add connectionString="<the production connection...>" name="Production"/>
  </connectionStrings>
  <!-- more stuff -->

and...

public class WebsiteSettings
{
    public int SessionTimeout { get; set; }
    public string SiteTitle { get; set; }

    public ConnectionStringSettings Development { get; set; }
    public ConnectionStringSettings Production { get; set; }
}

then...

dynamic config = new Configuration();
var settings = config.Bind<WebsiteSettings>();

resulting in...

settings.SessionTimeout = 20;
settings.SiteTitle = "Cat Facts";
settings.Development = "<some dev connection...>";
settings.Production = "<the production connection...>";

Access to Any Key/Value

Sometimes, you may need to access a value that contains special characters in the key and cannot be referenced like a property of function. When this is the case, you can still get the value by the string representation, like so:

dynamic config = new Configuration();
var specialValue = config.Get("Some:Value!");

Installation

To install Formo, please use NuGet (Formo NuGet Page):

PM> Install-Package Formo

Enhancements / Feedback

Use the issues link to get in touch with me about any improvements that could be made, or any bugs you encounter.

Contributors