Question

I am debugging an application that uses an XML file to store data as key/value pairs.

Every pageload the XML file is parsed to populate a Dictionary collection with these key/value pairs. The Dictionary is then used to look up values based on their keys.

Is this method of loading data from an XML file on every page load a good practice?

Here are some thoughts:

• Should the XML data be stored in a database table instead?
• Should I work with a collection or hit the database for every lookup request?
• Could the collection be loaded on application start and set as a global/application property?

What do you guys think?

Answer 1

I would suggest loading the results of the XML Parsing into the ASP.NET Cache:

Dictionary<string, object> values = new Dictionary<string, object>();

if(Cache["ConfigDictionary"] != null)
{
    values = (Dictionary<string, object>)Cache["ConfigDictionary"];
}
else
{
    // Load data into the dictionary here

    // This dependency will ensure that you don't keep stale data in the cache
    CacheDependency dependency = 
        new CacheDependency(Server.MapPath("yourFileHere.xml"));

    // Inser the Dictionary into the cache
    Cache.Insert("ConfigDictionary", values, dependency);
}