C#•2y ago

✅ Accessing the appsettings.json that resides in a ASP.NET Core 6 project from another project

Do I need to always pass that down as a constructor or is there any other way to do it. I need the database connection strings for my DAL project

43 Replies

Pobiega•2y ago

your DAL project shouldn't access it, it should be fed in somehow your APi project is the "core" of your application that assembles all the other parts

koshOP•2y ago

I understand the second part, but the first part is what I'm hung up on. Do I need to create a new class like AppSettingsContexts that gets populated in the API project that then goes into the DAL? I'm trying to understand what the best practices are

Pobiega•2y ago

why do you feel that you need the connection string in your DAL? also, are you using something like EF or is this just SqlConnection or similar?

koshOP•2y ago

I'm not using EF, so I guess that's part of why it's so hard for me to wrap my head around this. SqlConnection is what I want to use

Pobiega•2y ago

Well, how EF works internally is that you configure a DbContextOptions object in your API when you register EF and then when the context needs to use the connstr, it gets it from the options object

koshOP•2y ago

how does that make it's way to another project, via dependency injection? so on the controller level you need to pass that context down?

Pobiega•2y ago

Yep, DI not on controller level, as the DbContext is always injected so it gets it from the service provider

Angius•2y ago

The connection string gets passed as the context gets registered in the DI container

Pobiega•2y ago

so if your project uses DI, you could just register a config object and inject that into your DAL where you need the connstr

koshOP•2y ago

alright cool. so in my API program.cs file I have this configure service method, this is what it looks like currently

private static void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
        {
            services.AddControllers();
            services.AddSwaggerGen();
            services.AddScoped<ILookupRepository, LookupRepository>();

            services.AddScoped<IMarkerRepository, MarkerRepository>();
            services.AddScoped<IMarkerService, MarkerService>();

            services.AddScoped<IDestinationRepository, DestinationRepository>();
            services.AddScoped<IDestinationService, DestinationService>();

            services.AddScoped<IFuelDataRepository, FuelDataRepository>();
            services.AddScoped<IFuelDataService, FuelDataService>();

            services.AddScoped<IPathfindingRepository, PathfindingRepository>();
            services.AddScoped<IPathfindingService, PathfindingService>();

            services.AddScoped<IEnvironmentRepository, EnvironmentRepository>();
            services.AddScoped<IEnvironmentService, EnvironmentService>();


        }

private static void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
        {
            services.AddControllers();
            services.AddSwaggerGen();
            services.AddScoped<ILookupRepository, LookupRepository>();

            services.AddScoped<IMarkerRepository, MarkerRepository>();
            services.AddScoped<IMarkerService, MarkerService>();

            services.AddScoped<IDestinationRepository, DestinationRepository>();
            services.AddScoped<IDestinationService, DestinationService>();

            services.AddScoped<IFuelDataRepository, FuelDataRepository>();
            services.AddScoped<IFuelDataService, FuelDataService>();

            services.AddScoped<IPathfindingRepository, PathfindingRepository>();
            services.AddScoped<IPathfindingService, PathfindingService>();

            services.AddScoped<IEnvironmentRepository, EnvironmentRepository>();
            services.AddScoped<IEnvironmentService, EnvironmentService>();


        }

Pobiega•2y ago

yupyup and its your repositories that need the connection string, ye?

koshOP•2y ago

this is how I've laid out my project

Pobiega•2y ago

yupyup

koshOP•2y ago

this is one of my controllers

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using SEEFARE.Core.Responses.Markers;
using SEEFARE.Services.Interfaces;
using System.Text.Json.Nodes;

namespace SEEFARE.Controllers
{
    [ApiController]
    [Route("[controller]")]
    public class MarkersController : ControllerBase
    {
        private readonly IMarkerService _service;
        private readonly ILogger<MarkersController> _logger;
        public MarkersController(IMarkerService service, ILogger<MarkersController> logger)
        {
            _service = service;
            _logger = logger;
        }
        
        [HttpGet]
        public async Task<IActionResult> Index()
        {
            
            GetAllMarkersResponse ret = await _service.GetAllMarkers();
            return new JsonResult(ret);
        }
    }
}

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using SEEFARE.Core.Responses.Markers;
using SEEFARE.Services.Interfaces;
using System.Text.Json.Nodes;

namespace SEEFARE.Controllers
{
    [ApiController]
    [Route("[controller]")]
    public class MarkersController : ControllerBase
    {
        private readonly IMarkerService _service;
        private readonly ILogger<MarkersController> _logger;
        public MarkersController(IMarkerService service, ILogger<MarkersController> logger)
        {
            _service = service;
            _logger = logger;
        }
        
        [HttpGet]
        public async Task<IActionResult> Index()
        {
            
            GetAllMarkersResponse ret = await _service.GetAllMarkers();
            return new JsonResult(ret);
        }
    }
}

so in the API's program.cs config method, I would need to register a new class that I'll call something like AppContext, and populate it with the values from appsettings, then use Di on the controller level to the services, who would then pass that down to the DAL? man this is rocking my brain right now This is my currently flow: API -> Services -> DAL

Pobiega•2y ago

public record MyDatabaseOptions(string ConnectionString);
...
services.AddSingleton(new MyDatabaseOptions(connectionString));
...
public class SomeRepository
{
    private readonly SqlConnection _connection;

    public SomeRepository(MyDatabaseOptions options)
    {
        _connection = new SqlConnection(options.ConnectionString);
    }
    ...
}

public record MyDatabaseOptions(string ConnectionString);
...
services.AddSingleton(new MyDatabaseOptions(connectionString));
...
public class SomeRepository
{
    private readonly SqlConnection _connection;

    public SomeRepository(MyDatabaseOptions options)
    {
        _connection = new SqlConnection(options.ConnectionString);
    }
    ...
}

tada

public static class ServiceCollectionExtensions
{
    public static void AddDataAccess(this IServiceCollection services, string connectionString)
    {
        services.AddSingleton(new MyDatabaseOptions(connectionString));
    }
}

public static class ServiceCollectionExtensions
{
    public static void AddDataAccess(this IServiceCollection services, string connectionString)
    {
        services.AddSingleton(new MyDatabaseOptions(connectionString));
    }
}

if you wanna be fancy 🙂

Angius•2y ago

I'd have some DatabaseContext that wraps Dapper or whatever you're using (hopefully Dapper and not ADO), register that, and inject it into repositories/services Or inject just the options, yeah

koshOP•2y ago

It's a fresh project and I'm relatively new to C# api's. I'm pretty sure I'd be using ADO (I've never used Dapper before) but I've got experience with ADO

Angius•2y ago

My condolences

koshOP•2y ago

thanks for the help guys. last question @Pobiega , would I call ServiceCollectionExtensions.AddDataAccess from the ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services) method? I'm looking at dapper right now, it looks pretty cool

Angius•2y ago

Yep Say goodbye to manually mapping some data reader and other bullshit in a loop Just a generic method, a class, bada bing bada boom, done

koshOP•2y ago

I see why it's cool

   var cs = @"Server=localhost\SQLEXPRESS;Database=testdb;Trusted_Connection=True;";

            using var con = new SqlConnection(cs);
            con.Open();

            var cars = con.Query<Car>("SELECT * FROM cars").ToList();

            cars.ForEach(car => Console.WriteLine(car));

   var cs = @"Server=localhost\SQLEXPRESS;Database=testdb;Trusted_Connection=True;";

            using var con = new SqlConnection(cs);
            con.Open();

            var cars = con.Query<Car>("SELECT * FROM cars").ToList();

            cars.ForEach(car => Console.WriteLine(car));

haha yeah honestly it's so tedious

Pobiega•2y ago

services.AddDataAccess("your string here"); extension methods my man very cool stuff you could even register your repos in there its pretty common for "partial" applications like this to contain their own DI setup locally in an extension and the API just calls all those extensions

Angius•2y ago

Yeah, that .AddDataAccess() could also be registering the repositories And everything else from your DAL

Pobiega•2y ago

services.AddBusinessLogic();
services.AddDataAccess("connstr");
services.AddSecretDoomsdayDevice();`

services.AddBusinessLogic();
services.AddDataAccess("connstr");
services.AddSecretDoomsdayDevice();`

koshOP•2y ago

if I wanted to pull the value of my connstring from my appsettings.json, how would I do that within the .AddDataAccess method? that's where my confusion lies as well, how does it know between local/production environments I want to host this API once I get it all flushed out so that's why I was having a hard time wrapping my head aroundit all

Jayy•2y ago

Asp puts it in the env object when it starts up You can access this by injecting IEnvironment in ur classes However, app settings should not be used for connection strings Full stop

koshOP•2y ago

oh god where else do I include the two connection strings then? one for local and one for the live server

Pobiega•2y ago

your ConfigureServices method probably has access to the IConfiguration, so get it from there?

Angius•2y ago

Far as env vs dev goes, you can add many config sources that make up a hierarchy. If conn string isn't found in appsettings, look for it in env vars. If it's not there, look for it in keyvault, etc

Jayy•2y ago

Ohh ya sry IConfiguration im dumb Local dev is done using user-secrets production is done via keyvault or environment variables App settings is not for secrets Secrets should not be in appsettings

Jayy•2y ago

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/security/app-secrets?view=aspnetcore-7.0&tabs=windows

Safe storage of app secrets in development in ASP.NET Core

Learn how to store and retrieve sensitive information during the development of an ASP.NET Core app.

Jayy•2y ago

IConfiguration is what wires all these different providers up together So ur app code doesn't care if it's in prod or dev mode

koshOP•2y ago

thanks for that. Reading the docs right now, but I currently don't see this directory/file. Do I need to create it? %APPDATA%\Microsoft\UserSecrets<user_secrets_id>\secrets.json specifically the UserSecrets directory

Angius•2y ago

Use the secret manager

Pobiega•2y ago

use dotnet user-secrets

Angius•2y ago

dotnet user-secrets actually 🤓

Pobiega•2y ago

😄

koshOP•2y ago

yeah I ran user-secrets init and I got a GUID back, which is good lol alright sweet I see this here

 <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
    <UserSecretsId>356d59b2-7074-4347-8003-dc72d2bc3e57</UserSecretsId>
  </PropertyGroup>

 <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
    <UserSecretsId>356d59b2-7074-4347-8003-dc72d2bc3e57</UserSecretsId>
  </PropertyGroup>

C:\Users\jonat\AppData\Local\Microsoft C:\Users\jonat\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft I do not see a UserSecrets directory alright I got it lol sorry last and final question. when I deploy this, how will it know to look for a keyvault rather than my secrets

Pobiega•2y ago

your secrets will not be there when its deployed, so it will fall back to environment variables or a keyvault or however you configured it

koshOP•2y ago

love you guys, thanks a lot

koshOP•2y ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/foxinternational-reaction-simpsons-carl-3o8doT9BL7dgtolp7O

Giphy

koshOP•2y ago

went with the Di approach and it's gif related

Pobiega•2y ago

don't forget to /close the thread

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✅ Accessing the appsettings.json that resides in a ASP.NET Core 6 project from another project