SharePoint Timer Job Configuration

Each SharePoint Timer Job has a property bag (SPPersistedObject) that it can read from. When I write timer jobs that need to have configuration that is where I store it. Accessing this configuration information from your timer job is as easy as having code like the following in your Execute() method. In the example below, I put all of my configuration as an XML string in a "Config" property.

if (this.Properties.ContainsKey("Config"))
{
    object config = this.Properties["Config"];
    XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse(config.ToString());

    // Now do something with the configuration
}

Setting the configuration can be done via a custom central admin screen or even PowerShell. Here is an example using PowerShell.

$webApp = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationWebApplication]::Local
$job = $webApp.JobDefinitions | Where {$_.TypeName -eq "MyTimerJobs.MyTimerJob"}
$job.Properties.Add("Conifg", "<someXml/>");
$job.Update();

A key point with the PowerShell example above is that it assumes that the timer job is tied to the central admin web application. A SharePoint timer job is either tied to a web app or a service and whatever is chosen is where the timer job configuration (SPPersistedObject) is stored. If you use a different web app or a service, you'll need to adjust the PowerShell script accordingly.

Also, if you can have several instances of your timer job in the same container (web app or service), then finding it based on TypeName will not work for you. There are other properties on the job you can use to differentiate.

The main challenges of consuming WCF services in a SharePoint are determining how to store and maintain the configuration information. There are two options to configure the clients of a WCF service: 1) use a configuration file or 2) configure the client programmatically.

For SharePoint Timer jobs you can go for second option. Here is an example : How to: Programmatically Configure a WCF Endpoint

If you want, you can avoid some hardcoding by keeping the information in a xml file which you can access in a timer job programmatically.

You can try to use web.config of your web application (see this post) or create file that should be stored in a SharePoint library (see this post).