Configuration locking

[Ralf]

Hi,

in an application I'm using a non trivial configuration,
implemented with classes from the System.Configuration namespace.
The parameters will be written to the app.exe.config file.
My application is stored on a network device and can be used from
more than one user at the same time.
To prevent the parameters for competing access, I want to lock
the parameters during one user is editing these parameters.

The ConfigurationElement class has lock functionality:
ConfigurationElement.LockItem.
But I can't find any background informations about the locking mechanism.

Does anyone works with the locking mechanism?
I have a few questions about this:

1. Can I use LockItem for multi user locking?
2. How can I get the information which user is locking the parameters at the
moment?
3. How can I manually unlock the parameters if a lock is lost?
4. How does it work?
5. Is there a better way for configuration locking?

Regards
Ralf

 

[Cowboy \(Gregory A. Beamer\)]

The lock works quite a bit like a lock on a thread, only there is far less
information you can get from it. If you want something more full featured,
you will have to build your own. Before doing that, consider the next
question and response very carefully:

How often are you updating configs on a multi-user application? If the
values you are looking at are routinely changed, they would be better in a
persistant store than a configuration file.

--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP, MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

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[Ralf]

Hi Cowboy,

thanx for your answer,

How often are you updating configs on a multi-user application? If the
values you are looking at are routinely changed, they would be better in a
persistant store than a configuration file.

Normally the parameter will changed once per month.
So the use of a database makes no sense.
Although it is possible that two user are changing the parameters at the
same time.

Regards
Ralf