Global Variables - Extend It! ( Programming in VS2003, ASP.Net 1.1 )

Forum General DotNetN... Extend It! ( Pr... Global Variables

3/13/2006 12:55 PM

	Bill Cunnien
44 posts

Global Variables

Without recompiling DNN, how do I introduce some custom global variables (like a server path) into the application to be retrieved at run-time? I have a set of images being stored in a share on our network. I want DNN to know what that path is to the share and use it to retrieve the images for display within a custom module. I do not want to hard-code the pathname but rather store it globally. If the server gets moved, then I just need to go to that one location and change it. Should I do this in the web.config file? Like the connection strings to additional databases? If so, what is the best way to add this kind of thing to the file?

Thanks,
Ling

3/13/2006 1:43 PM

	Tony Valenti
375 posts

Re: Global Variables

Well, I'd say that's messy. I would recommend just storing it in another table or in Module settings, however, if you absolutely can't do that, I'd say store the value in the Web.Config

-Tony Valenti

I work for PowerDNN - The Enterprise DotNetNuke DNN Hosting Provider
Tony.Valenti@PowerDNN.com
+001-402-650-6072

3/13/2006 2:18 PM

	Bryan Johns
58 posts
www.greendragonweb.com

Re: Global Variables

Inside web.config, in the appSettings do something like this:

<appSettings>
    <add key="ImagePathKey" value="path to images" />
    
</appSettings>

Then in your custom module do something like this:

Imports System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings

Private Function ImagePath() as String
    Return AppSettings("ImagePathKey")
End Function

Then simply call the ImagePath function whenever you need to assign the path to your images to some variable. DNN might have built in function(s) to handle this so you only need to call the DNN function and maybe pass the name of your new appSettings key. If so perhaps one of the more experienced DNN dev's on this forum might speak up.

Bryan Johns
K4GDW

"There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary and those who do not."

3/13/2006 2:48 PM

	Bill Cunnien
44 posts

Re: Global Variables

I see that two people responded (thanks), but I have yet to see their actual responses. I guess there is a little bit of lag on the moderation of the forum. No biggee.

I have approached it this way:

Add AppSetting to web.config called MyAppPath and the value \\Server\Share\. Then I call this value by ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings("MyAppPath"). This works beautifully.

If someone else has a more elegant and effective way, please let me know. Perhaps those two responses already have it listed...we shall see...

Ling

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