the trick. You can specify the connection string there,
and you can edit it programatically if need be.
In my experience, the GAC is a great tool, but it's for
totally decoupled objects, or at least ones that have
configurable properties. But a config file can hold this
stuff, be edited manually or programatically, and add a
great deal of flexibility.
Where I work, we have added some Data Access libraries
but have at least two failsafe servers in case one goes
down. In our primary .dlls (we only deploy in house so
hard coding isn't all that impractical) we have the
ConnectStrings hard coded. However, we have exception
handlers that test for things like connection timeouts.
We just recently went to sending the updates to
MessageQueues where we can catch up, but for a good 9
months we specified backup servers in config files and
the exception code would try each of the standby's in
succession. Before we went to the MSMQ , we had a local
web service that would specify the standby server name,
so we could modify the return value that the app checked
for and updated the config files.
Hopefully this gives an idea or too. And BTW, anyone
using .NET isn't 'too old school' :-)
Good Luck,
Bill
-----Original Message-----
G'day all,
I am writting a variety of applications that will be
deployed to a variety of computers and servers on the
network. I have created a class that will access a
database to get the name and location of our email
server, the connection string for any specific project
etc. My thinking is that if any of the server change i
don't want to change all the applications. I could just
maintain 1 connection string per box. However i don't
know how to drop an assembly on a machine and have all
applications reference it. I am accustom to late binding
it and making sure it was registered on all
machines...now i am stumped...i have added it to the GAC
but i still don't know what to do with it from there.
Suggestions?
Thanks.
.
