App Settings for a .NET Console App: Save, Retrieve and Validate IPAddress and Port


Store, retrieve and update settings for a C# Console app that communicates with a remote Arduino IP Service.

Microsoft Learn

Link: ConfigurationManager.AppSettings Property

About

A static class SettingsManager was created with methods to store, retrieve and update the Console applications settings, IPAddress and Port. Both settings were stored as a string and validated upon retrieval. The string version of the IPAddress is though used in-app as a string, whereas as part of the Port value verification, it is parsed into an an integer in which form it is used in-app.

App.config file

Some documentation (including the above link) says that an App.config file defining the settings is required in the code as a resource. But it is ignored. A config file is created in the runtime folder at runtime. It is called <AssemblyName>.dll.config. For example, when a .NET Console app named SoftataConsole was run from Visual Studio in Debug mode, the file SoftataConsole.dll.config was generated in <App Containing Folder>\SoftataConsole\bin\Debug\net8.0:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
    <appSettings>
        <add key="IpaddressStr" value="2" />
        <add key="Port" value="3" />
    </appSettings>
</configuration>

SettingsManager Class Methods

//Only sets them to null
static void ClearAllSettings(); 
// Nb: To completely delete them, just delete the config file from the runtime folder.

//Adds new key value pair or updates
static void AddUpdateAppSettings(string key, string value);

//Iterate through all key value pairs
static void ReadAllSettings();

//Get value for key if it exists
static string ReadSetting(string key);

AppSettingsManager.cs File

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace SoftataConsole
{
    internal static class SettingsManager
    {
        internal static void ReadAllSettings()
        {
            try
            {
                var appSettings = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings;

                if (appSettings.Count == 0)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("AppSettings is empty.");
                }
                else
                {
                    foreach (var key in appSettings.AllKeys)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Key: {0} Value: {1}", key, appSettings[key]);
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (ConfigurationErrorsException)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Error reading app settings");
            }
        }

        internal static void ClearAllSettings()
        {
            try
            {
                var appSettings = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings;

                if (appSettings.Count == 0)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("ClearAll:AppSettings is empty.");
                }
                else
                {
                    foreach (var key in appSettings.AllKeys)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("ClearAll:Key: {0} Value: {1}", key, appSettings[key]);
                        appSettings[key] = null;
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (ConfigurationErrorsException ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("ClearAll:Error reading app settings");
                Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
            }
        }

        internal static string ReadSetting(string key)
        {
            try
            {
                var appSettings = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings;
                string result = appSettings[key] ?? "";
                return result;
            }
            catch (ConfigurationErrorsException)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Error reading app settings");
                return "";
            }
        }

        internal static void AddUpdateAppSettings(string key, string value)
        {
            try
            {
                var configFile = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
                var settings = configFile.AppSettings.Settings;
                if (settings[key] == null)
                {
                    settings.Add(key, value);
                }
                else
                {
                    settings[key].Value = value;
                }
                configFile.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified);
                ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection(configFile.AppSettings.SectionInformation.Name);
            }
            catch (ConfigurationErrorsException)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Error writing app settings");
            }
        }
    }
}

Retrieving the IPAddress from the Console code

    //Default setting
    string IPAddress = "192.168.0.12";

    //SettingsManager.ClearAllSettings();
    SettingsManager.ReadAllSettings();
    //Not required

    //Read setting from app settings if it exists and validate
    string _ipaddressStr = SettingsManager.ReadSetting("IpaddressStr");
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(_ipaddressStr))
    {
        if (_ipaddressStr.Count(c => c == '.') == 3)
        {
            if (IPAddress.TryParse(_ipaddressStr, out IPAddress? address))
            {
                Ipaddress = _ipaddressStr;
            }
            else
                Console.WriteLine("\t\tInvalid App Settings IP Address");
        }
        else
            Console.WriteLine("\t\tInvalid App Settings IP Address");
    }
    else
    {
        // Add default setting to app settings
        SettingsManager.AddUpdateAppSettings("IpaddressStr", ipaddressStr);
    }

Retrieving the Port from the Console code.

    //Default setting:
    in port = 4242;

    string _port = SettingsManager.ReadSetting("Port");
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(_port)
    {
        if(int.TryParse(_port, out int _portNo))
        {
            port = _portNo;
        }
        else
            Console.WriteLine("\t\tInvalid AppSettings  Port");
    }
    else
    {
        SettingsManager.AddUpdateAppSettings("Port", port.ToString());
    }

Example Run

Key: IpaddressStr Value: 192.168.0.12
Key: Port Value: 4242
Softata Tests
Default Softata Server is at 192.168.0.12:4242
Enter new values or press [Enter] to continue:
Plz Enter IPAdress:
Plz Enter Port:
Selected Softata Server is at 192.168.0.12:4242
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