Question

I have a Web.config with several ConnectionStrings

<connectionStrings>
    <add name="connStr1" connectionString="...
    <add name="ConnStr2" connectionString="...
    <add name="connStr3" connectionString="...

Is there a way using config transformations to remove a specific connectionstring? Something Like:

<connectionStrings>
    <xdt:Remove connStr2?

Obviously no where near the correct syntax, but you get my drift…

Answer 1

From the MSDN documentation on the subject:

<configuration xmlns:xdt="...">
  <connectionStrings>
    <add xdt:Transform="Remove" />
  </connectionStrings>
</configuration>

The Transform="Remove" is the magic you’re looking for. There is also a Transform="RemoveAll" which you might be able to use in conjunction with a specific add(s).

EDIT

On second thought you may also be able to combine the Locator attribute with the Remove defined above to limit which elements you actually want to delete.

More definitively:

<configuration xmlns:xdt="...">
  <connectionStrings>
    <add xdt:Transform="Remove" xdt:Locator="XPath(configuration/connectionStrings[@name='ConnStr2'])" />
  </connectionStrings>
</configuration>

Or similar should work.