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Cover image for How to C#: add a settings file to your Console application
Roel
Roel

Posted on • Edited on

How to C#: add a settings file to your Console application

What if I want to create a quick console application and keep all my settings in a seperate appsettings.json file? The default C# application template doesn't provide this for us, so I think it might be useful to write a little guide to make this easier in the future.

Required

  • .Net 5.0 console application
  • The following packages:
<ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration" Version="5.0.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Binder" Version="5.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json" Version="5.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection" Version="5.0.0" />
</ItemGroup>
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Guide

Simply follow these steps to load your appsettings into a class for easy use.

  • Add the references above to the project
  • Add a new class called ApiSettings.cs
    public class ApiSettings
    {
        public string TwitterApiKey { get; set; }
        public string TwitterApiSecret { get; set; }
        public string BearerToken { get; set; }
    }
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  • Add a new class called Startup.cs
public class Startup
    {
        public Startup()
        {
            var builder = new ConfigurationBuilder()
                      .SetBasePath(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
                      .AddJsonFile("appsettings.json", optional: false);

            IConfiguration config = builder.Build();

            ApiSettings = config.GetSection("ApiSettings").Get<ApiSettings>();

        }

        public ApiSettings ApiSettings { get; private set; }
    }
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  • Add your appsettings.json with content similar to something like this:
  {
"ApiSettings": {
    "TwitterApiKey": "",
    "TwitterApiSecret": "",
    "BearerToken": ""
  }
}
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  • Right click on the file appsettings.json and set the copy output to Copy always

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  • Make sure the fields in the section 'ApiSettings' match your ApiSettings.cs class.

  • Go back to your Program.cs file and add the following line:
    var startup = new Startup();

  • We can now use the values in the ApiSettings section of our appsettings. You can try it out with the following code.

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All Done!

Now you can experiment and make it even more advanced yourself!

Top comments (3)

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vaso profile image
Vaclav Elias

Your required section should be saying .NET 6 instead of .NET 5 as you are referencing .NET 6 NuGet packages.

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iamrule profile image
Roel

Hey, thanks for your comment! The v6.0 packages actually work on a .net5 application in my example. I will update the article to reference the v5 packages to make it easier to understand for new readers.

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vaso profile image
Vaclav Elias

You are welcome. I know that it works, I only mentioned it so we don't confuse new learners 🤣