I currently have three projects in my solution that all have their own App.config file with the same exact connection string.
Is there a way to consolidate the connections strings / app.config files so that I only need to make changes to one location?
You can share the connection strings among multiple projects in a solution as follows:
Create a ConnectionStrings.config file with your connection strings under a solution folder, this file should contain only the section connectionStrings
In your projects, add this config file As a Link (add existing item, add as link)
Copy to Output Directory to Copy always or Copy if newerApp.config of your projects, point to the linked ConnectionStrings.config file using the configSource attribute:
<connectionStrings configSource="ConnectionStrings.config" />ConnectionStrings.config
<connectionStrings>
<add name="myConnStr" connectionString="Data Source=(local); Initial Catalog=MyDB;Integrated Security=SSPI;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>
App.config
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
...
<connectionStrings configSource="ConnectionStrings.config" />
...
</configuration>
There's a few ways you could do it:
For me, i always work with the last solution :) Good luck!
First, take a look at this post. It describes how you can share the same app.config between multiple projects.
Second, take a look at one other post, which describes how you let different app.config-files have a reference to one single shared xml-file which contains the connection strings.
Use XML includes or config references in app.config to include other config files' settings
