TechNucleus

When ever we develop ASP.NET application, we keep our entire environmental specific settings into web.config file. Based on where we deploy the application (Dev, Test, Prod), we will comment out other environments which is a manually process. Personally I prefer different web.config files for different environments and based on the Build option you select it should dynamically create the appropriate web.config file for that environment.


Below I mentioned step by step procedure to achieve that functionality.

1. Create Files with following Extenstions
• Web.config.Local
• Web.config.Debug
• Web.config.Release
2. Right click the Project and select Properties
3. Select Build Events Tab and paste the following code in Pre-Build Event Command Line text box.
   
   "$(ProjectDir)ChangeConfig.bat" "$(ProjectDir)web.config.$(ConfigurationName)" "$(ProjectDir)web.config"
4. Create a Text file with name (ChangeConfig.bat) and copy the following code.
   
   @echo off
   echo Comparing two files: %1 with %2
   if not exist %1 goto File1NotFound
   if not exist %2 goto File2NotFound
   fc %1 %2
   if %ERRORLEVEL%==0 GOTO NoCopy
   echo Files are not the same. Copying %1 over %2
   echo Removing Readonly Attribute on File %2
   attrib -r %2
   copy %1 %2 /y
   echo Set Readonly Attribute on File %2
   attrib +r %2
   goto END
   :NoCopy
   echo Files are the same. Did nothing
   goto END
   :File1NotFound
   echo %1 not found.
   goto END
   :File2NotFound
   copy %1 %2 /y
   goto END
   :END
   echo Done.
5. Select Build Menu in VS 2005 and select Configuration Manager.
6. Select New
   
   
   
   
7. Name it DebugLocal and select Debug.

8. Click OK button.

There you go, from now onwards if you change the build, it automatically copies appropriate web.config file.