Question

I have have running windows service that is using it’s app.config for getting some important values. Now I would like to provide a different GUI application that provide a way to change these important values and save it to the same app.config.

My question is this: will it be possible to share this app.config between the projects by using “Add as a link” and if I then use my GUI application and change some values, will this be reflected in the windows service?

EDIT:
If this works, then perhaps someone also know the details of how the linking works in a more technical view?

Answer 1

Both the projects can share the same app.config. Not sure about linking, but you can have same structure and values in two different config, but when deploying it, deploy it in same folder as windows service.

Now regarding updating the values of app.config, they will not get reflected in windows service, if win service is running. You will need to restart the windows service for this. Because app settings are cached in memory, and loaded in memory when app starts. You can use ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection to refresh the loaded config in memory. You can read about it on MSDN. You will have have to do this in your windows service.

Hope this info helps you.