I'm using the Application Settings to declare a default connection string. Then I created a data source that uses that connection string. The problem is that I can not change the connection sting because it has application scope.
When the app starts, it reads a few registry values and constructs the connection string. Further, I have a "Settings" display that the user can use to change the settings. Is it possible to declare my Connection String as a string in the application settings ? Is the data source going to resolve it correctly ? I don't mind if using the changed connection string requires the application to restart.
What would the recommended course of action be ?

Hi Ventsislav,

The connectionString which generated by designer can't be changed at runtime due to it uses the application scope. This kind of questions have been raised many times. You can take a look at the following discussions.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/winforms/thread/1ce2d4a6-3afc-4dbc-aaf3-563035b627d5/
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/adodotnetdataproviders/thread/7483b816-be7a-4204-a4d3-cfb14b2aae26

Based on my experience, I think you can choose to edit the app.config file by using notepad, or XML APIs to write the setting to the config file at runtime which you can find sample code from this thread .

>Also, I have a string variable inside my code that keeps the currently used connection string. The question thus becomes how do I force the data set to use that connection >string?

You can change the ConnectionString of the Connection property of the TableAdapter object before you use the TableAdapter object to fill the dataset.

this.testTableAdapter.Connection.ConnectionString = "current connection string";
this.testTableAdapter.Fill(this.testDataSet.Food);

If you have anything unclear, please feel free to let me know.

Best regards,
Bruce Zhou

---

Please mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark if they don't.

Also, I have a string variable inside my code that keeps the currently used connection string. The question thus becomes how do I force the data set to use that connection string?

Hi Ventsislav,

The connectionString which generated by designer can't be changed at runtime due to it uses the application scope. This kind of questions have been raised many times. You can take a look at the following discussions.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/winforms/thread/1ce2d4a6-3afc-4dbc-aaf3-563035b627d5/
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/adodotnetdataproviders/thread/7483b816-be7a-4204-a4d3-cfb14b2aae26

Based on my experience, I think you can choose to edit the app.config file by using notepad, or XML APIs to write the setting to the config file at runtime which you can find sample code from this thread .

>Also, I have a string variable inside my code that keeps the currently used connection string. The question thus becomes how do I force the data set to use that connection >string?

You can change the ConnectionString of the Connection property of the TableAdapter object before you use the TableAdapter object to fill the dataset.

this.testTableAdapter.Connection.ConnectionString = "current connection string";
this.testTableAdapter.Fill(this.testDataSet.Food);

If you have anything unclear, please feel free to let me know.

Best regards,
Bruce Zhou

---

Please mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark if they don't.

Hi Ventsislav,

How's your problem now? If the problem is still not solved or any further help from me, please feel free to let me know.

Best regards,
Bruce Zhou

---

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.
Welcome to the All-In-One Code Framework! If you have any feedback, please tell us.

What I ended up doing is the following:
1. I created a String variable in my code that contains the dynamically generated connection string and a SQLConnection object that uses the connection string to connect to the data source.
2. All my other forms are using that connection object for their table adapters.

I still don't allow "on the fly" connection switching. If you change the settings affecting the connection string, you have the restart the app to see the change taking place.

Hi Ventsislav ,

Thank you for sharing your final decision. If you have further problems or any concerns, feel free to contact me.

Best regards,

Bruce Zhou

MSDN Subscriber Support in Forum

If you have any feedback on our support, please contact msdnmg@microsoft.com

---

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.
Welcome to the All-In-One Code Framework! If you have any feedback, please tell us.