tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667519048881938478.post8916007646093126294..comments2008-07-11T13:27:18.288-05:00Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10348702008778742387noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667519048881938478.post-54729824475025844602008-07-11T13:27:00.000-05:002008-07-11T13:27:00.000-05:00I was actually just yesterday asking if there was a way to extend the web.config but my search kept just turning up information about adding custom configuration sections. Using the phrase "secondary file" in the search helped me find what I was looking for. Thanks devonianfarm.<BR/><BR/>The method I described works for our situation because there really is only one development environment setup and only one production server and development and QA testing happen in the same environment. It's not the ideal situation, but it's a realistic one for this company. Whenever we can we improve/correct the process, we do. I am definitely going to look into the secondary files now that I know there <I>is</I> a way to do it.<BR/><BR/>However, I don't believe the way I described is a horrible idea either. The source code is set up for the development environment and build process takes care of preparing it for production.<BR/><BR/>Thank you again for your comment, devonianfarm.Obishawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10348702008778742387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667519048881938478.post-74104077198128811932008-07-11T13:05:00.000-05:002008-07-11T13:05:00.000-05:00devonianfarm,<BR/><BR/>The problem is that you're at high risk for human error. Someone changes one config file, and not another.<BR/><BR/>The method described works well because it's rare to add "differences" between the configurations.SuperJasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13544562404044466305noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667519048881938478.post-17564879938878542632008-07-11T12:36:00.000-05:002008-07-11T12:36:00.000-05:00Title should be "How To Build A Rube Goldberg Machine For Configuration Management."<BR/><BR/>I think it's a bad answer for an important problem.A CM strategy should make it just plain easy to create multiple development, test and production servers: on different machines or all on the same machine.<BR/><BR/>The "Silver Standard" for managing web site configuration is to keep all of your files in version control except for ONE file with local configuration. There's a mechanism where your Web.Config can include a secondary file... Just install a different secondary file for every installation and you're golden.<BR/><BR/>A "Gold Standard" approach is to have multiple secondary files, keep them in version control, and have some mechanism to switch which one gets pulled in.<BR/><BR/>http://gen5.info/q/devonianfarmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06307865679749826052noreply@blogger.com