I am fairly new to c#. So far so good with learning. I do have one question, well maybe two.
How do you create a user dialog to allow the selection of a connection string when the project starts? I have 4 databases with the same schema and would like to allow the user to choose which to connect to when they launch the program.
I am currently using datasets but am willing to learn/try another method to acheive the desired result.
Put them into the config's connectionStrings area and provide the user with a ComboBox containing the names of the connection strings. Then use the one selected.
In your config:
<connectionStrings>
<add name="Environment1" connectionString="connString1" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
<add name="Environment2" connectionString="connString2" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
<add name="Environment3" connectionString="connString3" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
<add name="Environment4" connectionString="connString4" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>
In your code, add the connection strings to a ComboBox:
foreach (ConnectionStringSettings connString in ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings)
{
myComboBox.Items.Add(connString.Name);
}
Get the name from the ComboBox, then get the connString you need and use it:
// Access chosen one:
string chosenName = (string)myComboBox.SelectedItem;
string connString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings[chosenName].ConnectionString;
You need to put the connection string for various database into the app.config or web.config files as suggested by zimdanen like:
<connectionStrings>
<add name="Database1" connectionString="Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial
Catalog=db1;Integrated Security=True" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
</connectionStrings>
Then you can use ConfigurationManager class to achieve the results:
foreach (ConnectionStringSettings connectionString in
ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings)
{
//YOU CAN ADD NAME OF CONNECTION STRING TO A COMBOBOX FOR USER TO MAKE
// A SELECTION
//connectionString.Name
}
Once the selection is made you can get the desired connection string with following line:
var s=ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings[<SELECTED NAME>].ConnectionString
s here will contain the connection string as a string, so just pass that to wherever it's needed.Add Application Configuration File and add your connection strings in < connectionStrings>. In your code use ConfigurationManager.ConnectionString to enumerate through a list of connection strings.
