The best way to manage multiple client endpoint configurations (IP-address etc) in app.config

Question

We developing a system where the client application is a .NET client communicating with a server using web services. We need to be able to deploy the client with different configuration options, e.g. IP address etc. So far we have managed this by basically commenting/un-commenting different configurations in app.config, like:

<!--<client>
    <endpoint address="https://localhost/services/service1"
        binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="ServiceSoapBinding"
        contract="ServiceReference.Service1" name="ServiceImplPort" />
    <endpoint address="https://localhost/services/service2"
        binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="ServiceSoapBinding"
        contract="ServiceReference.Service2" name="ServiceImplPort" />
    ...
    ..
</client>-->
<client>
    <endpoint address="https://prod.example.com/services/service1"
        binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="ServiceSoapBinding"
        contract="ServiceReference.Service1" name="ServiceImplPort" />
    <endpoint address="https://prod.example.com/services/service2"
        binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="ServiceSoapBinding"
        contract="ServiceReference.Service2" name="ServiceImplPort" />
    ...
    ..
</client>

But it seems obvious that this is not the best solution to the problem, it becomes a bit unmanageable as the number of configuration alternatives grow. Any suggestions how to improve this are most welcome.

Regards, Ola

Answer 1

Fortunately there is a great solution to this problem. Download and install MSBuild.Community.Tasks

Then check out the following posts for example usage

http://chris.widdowson.id.au/?p=781

http://grahamrhay.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/multiple-config-transforms-at-build-time/

warning it takes longer than 5 minutes to set up and you will be editing your .csproj file by hand

This solution does work very well, come back with any issues