Enterprise Library 3.0 - Visual Studio-Integrated Configuration Editor
by David Hayden ( MVP C# ), Filed: Enterprise Library 3.0
Honestly, I did not plan to write a post about an hour after Enterprise Library 3.0 was released, but this Visual Studio-Integrated Configuration Editor is so cool I must have sobbed for 10 minutes at my desk in utter joy! This thing is absolutely heavenly if you use Enterprise Library as much as I do.
Enterprise Library Configuration Editor
After you install Enterprise Library 3.0, you can
- Right click on your app.config or web.config file in a project
- Choose open with...
and see that there is a new entry for an editor, called Enterprise Library Configuration Editor. This was already set to default for me so Enterprise Library 3.0 must have set this by default during installation. Either way, you can change it to default or change it not to default via this dialog.
Visual Studio-Integrated Configuration Editor
Now hold on to your hats, when using the Enterprise Library Configuration Editor to edit your app.config or web.config you get this beautiful configuration design surface:
Yeah, this is the old ( and still existing ) Enterprise Library Configuration GUI Tool integrated into Visual Studio. No more jumping between Visual Studio and the Configuration Tool during development. Notice you also get configuration support for Application Settings. Bonus!
Encryption Support - Built In!
Still not impressed. Check this bad boy out. Encrypt and decrypt any configuration section by the click of a simple drop-down menu in the Properties Area. I'm not freaking kidding-
Don't believe it is really encrypted? Quickly change your configuration editor for app.config or web.config from the new Enterprise Library Configuration Editor to the normal XML Editor and see for yourself. Here are the results of encrypting the DAAB Area:
<dataConfiguration configProtectionProvider=
"DataProtectionConfigurationProvider">
<EncryptedData>
<CipherData>
<CipherValue>AQAAANCMnd8BFdERj...</CipherValue>
</CipherData>
</EncryptedData>
</dataConfiguration>
<connectionStrings configProtectionProvider=
"DataProtectionConfigurationProvider">
<EncryptedData>
<CipherData>
<CipherValue>AQAAANCMnd8BFdERj...</CipherValue>
</EncryptedData>
</connectionStrings>
That is cool!
by David Hayden ( MVP C# )
Filed: Enterprise Library 3.0