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ASP+ Configuration Concepts
A central requirement of any web application server is a rich and flexible configuration system – one that enables developers to easily associate settings with an installable application without having to embed values into code, and enables administrators to easily adjust or customize these values post-deployment.
The ASP+ configuration system addresses both of these requirements. It does this through a hierarchical configuration infrastructure that enables extensible configuration data to be defined and used throughout ASP+ applications. At the same time, ASP+ provides a rich set of initial configuration settings.
The ASP+ configuration system provides the following benefits:
- Configuration information is stored in XML-based configuration files that are both human-readable and human-writeable. Administrators and developers can use any standard text editor, XML parser, or PERL script to interpret and update configuration settings.
- Configuration information is stored in files that are kept within the same directory tree as the rest of the application files. This enables easy installation of ASP+ applications, complete with configuration information, using xcopy or ftp.
- The configuration system is easily extensible. You can store your own configuration criteria and settings within the configuration system.
- Changes to ASP+'s configuration files are automatically detected by the system, and are applied without requiring any user intervention. The administrator does not need to "kick" the system to get the changes to take effect.
- The configuration information contained is applied hierarchically. Child directories inherit or override configuration settings from parent directories. This allows different settings for different applications or different parts of a single application