How to override an ASP.NET Core configuration array setting reducing length of the array

Question

I have an ASP.NET Core app with appsettings.json config file. One of the settings in the file is represented by the array of objects, like this:

{
  "Globalization": {
    "Languages": [
      {
        "DisplayName": "Ru",
        "Code": "ru"
      },
      {
        "DisplayName": "En",
        "Code": "en"
      }
    ]
  }
}

In our CI system we use environment variables to override the configuration settings from file. It turns out that I can only override existing items or add new items to the array, but I can’t reduce the number of items using index notation ("Globalization__Languages__0__DisplayName" etc.).

And it’s the same with appsettings.{Environment}.json, I still have two language options even if I have just one item in it.

Of course I can make the base config empty or invent some other workaround, but am I missing something? Is there any way to neatly override the settings reducing the number of items (preferably with the help of environment variables)?

ADM-IT · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-30 14:34:11Z

4

Microsoft community made a very bad design decision to make arrays work in that way (IMHO).

As a solution we worked it out as the follows:

{
  "Globalization": {
    "Languages": "ru|Ru,en|En"
  }
}

and then:

var langs = Configuration.GetSection("Globalization:Languages")
    .Value.Split(',')
    .Select(x => x.Split('|'))
    .Select(x => new { Code = x[0], DisplayName = x[1] })
    .ToArray();

My proposal is here.

edited Mar 30, 2022 at 14:34

answered Oct 22, 2021 at 12:07

ADM-IT

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