Optimal way to store objects in AppConfig.json

user_9969906 0
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My AppConfig.json:

{
     "MyTimeZone: "CET",
     "RegularString" : "SomeValue",
     "AnArray" : ["1","2"]
}

My POCO class:

public class Settings
{
     public TimeZoneInfo MyTimeZone { get; set; }
     public string RegularString { get; set; }
     public IList<string> AnArray { get; set; }
}

Registry.cs:

var configuration = GetConfiguration("AppSettings.json");
services.Configure<Settings>(configuration.GetSection("Settings"));

This of course does not bind "CET" into a valid TimeZoneInfo object. Now the question is what is the best place in my application (a web app) to convert from string to TimeZoneInfo? Is there a way to automatically convert string config values to objects based on certain rules without creating custom converters?

dependency-injection binding type-conversion configuration asp.net
2 Answers

Reference Use DI services to configure options

services.AddOptions<Settings>()
    .Configure<IConfiguration>((setting, configuration) => {
        var section = config.GetSection("Settings");
        //This will populate the other properties that can bind by default
        section.Bind(setting);

        //this will extract the remaining value and set it mnually
        string value = section.GetValue<string>("MyTimeZone");
        TimeZoneInfo info = TimeZoneInfo.FindSystemTimeZoneById(value);
        setting.MyTimeZone = info;
    });

The complex setting value can be extracted directly from configuration via DI and used to create the time zone and apply it to the settings.

user_52334100

It just my personal opinion but I prefer the MyTimeZone to be a json object instead only a string. Consider the following:

"Settings": {
    "MyTimeZone": {
      "ConfigureTimeZoneById":  "CET"
    },
    "RegularString": "SomeValue",
    "AnArray": [ "1", "2" ]
  }

MyTimeZone.ConfigureTimeZoneById is not part of the actual data object. It's just proxy to bind object to configuration. This how TimeZone class might look like:

public class TimeZone
    {
        private string configureTimeZoneById { get; set; }
        public string ConfigureTimeZoneById
        {
            get { return configureTimeZoneById; }
            set
            {
                configureTimeZoneById = value;
                InitializeTimeZone(value);
            }
        }
        public string TimeZoneId { get; set; }
        public string OtherProperties { get; set; }

        private void InitializeTimeZone(string id)
        {
            var getTimeZone = TimeZonesDataset().FirstOrDefault(tzon => tzon.TimeZoneId.Equals(id));
            if (getTimeZone != null)
            {
                this.TimeZoneId = getTimeZone.TimeZoneId;
                this.OtherProperties = getTimeZone.OtherProperties;
            }
        }







        //dummy dataset
        private List<TimeZone> TimeZonesDataset() => new List<TimeZone> {
            new TimeZone{TimeZoneId = "CET", OtherProperties = "Dummy properties to prove point"},
            new TimeZone{TimeZoneId = "GMT", OtherProperties = default},
        };
user_67903690
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