When you are working on software that needs to target different resources for different environments (ie. local, DEV, STAGE, PRODUCTION), you can easily manage your VS project environment through the use of .config transformation files.
To associate your transformations with different builds, under the Build Dropdown, select "Configuration Manager..." and configure as you like:
Here is your default web.config:
Simply make an alternate version (with the same name) of the element you wish to change in your various configuration transformations (web.DEBUG.config, web.Development.config, etc.). In this example, we are setting up a transform to change the connection string that has the name, "applicationConnStr":
NOTE: The same configuration element (the same name, specifically) you want to transform must be in the base web.config file.
By default, the transformation we have set up will only be applied when the project is published. In order to get the transformations working with each build, you must edit the bottom of the *.csproj file with the following Target:
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<TransformXml
Source="Web.Base.config"
Transform="Web.$(Configuration).config"
Destination="Web.config" />
</Target>
And be sure to uncomment the code, it is commented out by default. Now select a different build configuration, build your project, and you should see the "applicationConnStr" transformed to match the element from the web.config.[Debug||Release||etc.] that you selected to Build:
To add new web.config transform files, just right click on the web.config file and select "Add Config Transformation".
To associate your transformations with different builds, under the Build Dropdown, select "Configuration Manager..." and configure as you like:
Setting up build configurations that point to different web.configs (actually web.config "transforms") allows you to debug and run code according to your needs (ie. show DEMO at a meeting, Debug Development to uncover a bug, point to local for ongoing development, etc.).
ASP.NET Core has a very different configuration setup that uses JSON objects and more configurable things in .NET Core Startup.cs; this reference is for .NET Standard.
The key in all of this is the name of the element you are matching and then replacing. It just has to match in both places and all will be transformed on your application's web.config. In this example, we matched and replaced the value for a config element with the name, "applicationConnStr".
In a real-world scenario, there are many things that we could dynamically replace through config transforms: database connection strings, image servers, mail servers, file shares, printer locations, encryption keys, etc.).
Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/web-forms/overview/deployment/visual-studio-web-deployment/web-config-transformations
ASP.NET Core has a very different configuration setup that uses JSON objects and more configurable things in .NET Core Startup.cs; this reference is for .NET Standard.
The key in all of this is the name of the element you are matching and then replacing. It just has to match in both places and all will be transformed on your application's web.config. In this example, we matched and replaced the value for a config element with the name, "applicationConnStr".
In a real-world scenario, there are many things that we could dynamically replace through config transforms: database connection strings, image servers, mail servers, file shares, printer locations, encryption keys, etc.).
Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/web-forms/overview/deployment/visual-studio-web-deployment/web-config-transformations
