Workleap.Extensions.Configuration.Substitution

This package adds variable substitution configuration provider implementation for Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.

Getting started

dotnet add package Workleap.Extensions.Configuration.Substitution

// Example for an ASP.NET Core web application
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

// Setup your configuration
builder.Configuration.AddJsonFile("appsettings.json");
builder.Configuration.AddEnvironmentVariables();
builder.Configuration.AddSubstitution(); // <-- Add this after other configuration providers

How it works

You can reference configuration values inside other configuration values by enclosing the referenced configuration key like this: ${ReferencedConfigurationKey}.

Examples

Consider this appsettings.json:

{
  "Credentials": {
    "Username": "alice1",
    "Password": "P@ssw0rd"
  },
  "ConnectionString": "usr=${Credentials:Username};pwd=${Credentials:Password}"
}

Evaluating the configuration value ConnectionString would return usr=alice1;pwd=P@ssw0rd.

This also works if you're using multiple configuration providers. For instance, one could have the Credentials:Password configuration value provided by a secret from Azure Key Vault and this value would have been injected into the ConnectionString value too.

It also works with arrays:

{
  "Credentials": [ "alice1", "P@ssw0rd" ],
  "ConnectionString": "usr=${Credentials:0};pwd=${Credentials:1}"
}

Again, you're not limited to JSON file providers, you could use substitution with any configuration providers. It was easier to use JSON files in these examples.

Escaping values

You might not want a specific value to be substituted. In that case, escape it using double curly braces:

{
  "Foo": "foo",
  "Bar": "${{Foo}}"
}

Evaluating the configuration value Bar would return ${Foo}.

Exceptions

You can encounter two kinds of exceptions if your configuration is incorrect:

• UnresolvedConfigurationKeyException, if you're trying to substitute a configuration value that is undefined (i.e. the key does not exist).
• RecursiveConfigurationKeyException, if you have many configuration values that reference each other in a recursive manner, no matter how deep the recursion is. The exception will give you details about the recursive path.

UnresolvedConfigurationKeyException can also be triggered sooner than later by using AddSubstitution(eagerValidation: true). Using eagerValidation with value true (default is false) instructs the library to check for undefined values in all the existing configuration values once, instead of checking for a particular value. This happens as soon as any configuration value is loaded.

Configuration providers order

When using .NET's IConfigurationBuilder, the order of configuration providers matters . Any configuration provider added after AddSubstitution() would not benefit from the substitution process.

License

Copyright © 2022, Workleap. This code is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. You may obtain a copy of this license at https://github.com/gsoft-inc/gsoft-license/blob/master/LICENSE.