Question

Visual Studio natively supports adding custom config transforms for web.config. Is there a way to do the same thing for a custom config file? For instance, the shop I’m at has an EnvironmentConfigs directory in the root of the project and there are custom appSettings.config and connectionStrings.config files. Is there a way to do the same thing that web.config does and add appSettings.Release.config and connectionStrings.Release.config transformation files that will transform them on publish?

Answer 1

I’m not sure about config’s like that, but check out the Slow Cheetah extension in VS2010. You can install it by going to the Tools > Extension Manager and search the Online Gallery. It adds the ability to use config transforms for App.Config’s and possibly will work in the scenario you describe. It adds a lot of transform functionality in general (even to web.config’s) so it’s a great tool to use. Out of the box, VS2010 will not do that, though.

Edit: According to the description for SlowCheetah: “This package enables you to transform app.config or any other XML file based on the build configuration”. So yes, it seems it will do what you need…