colon : in appsettings

Question

User-1416423428 posted

I was browsing the source code of MiniBlog with the goal of studying some of its techniques. 

Theme = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("blog:theme");

I noticed they're using a colon (:) in the appsettings.get.  Is there any special significance to this? Or is this just like any letter/character you can use? 

Answer 1

User-760709272 posted

No, it's just a way of grouping settings, so any settings regarding "blog" will start with "blog:"  Other common conventions are using a ".", so "blog.theme" etc.  Such naming conventions also allow you to build your own config classes, like;

BlogSettings.Get("theme")

and all "Get" in "BlogSettings" does is add "blog:" to the start of the requested setting, so you could also have

ProductSettings.Get("theme")

and under the covers that will access the "product:theme" setting.

Answer 2

User-1416423428 posted
So you can use dots and colons as valid characters for use in app setting names? They're not specially treated by asp.net in any way, it's just for user readability?

Answer 3

User-760709272 posted

Yeah it's just for readability.