CheckMyConfig

CheckMyConfig is a developer / admin tool for validating .NET config files. It can detect broken connection strings, missing files, unreachable URLs and other common configuration problems. A software configuration sanity check, if you like !

Configuration problems are usually entirely preventable, and tend to be expensive to fix if they are impacting a live environment where users are unable to work. You're supposed to be deploying software that works, dammit!

CheckMyConfig can be used to validate the configuration settings which are defined by the software developer and hence are unique to a given application - including, but not limited to, the AppSettings, ApplicationSettings and UserSettings sections of your app.config, exe.config or web.config file. These are the ones that will generally cause your app to fall over completely if wrong.

You can use it when you install a new application for the first time, when you install a new version of existing software, or even when you just want to verify that an existing config file is still valid (given that your config file will refer to existing resources which may have become unavailable since the app was installed).

CheckMyConfig can be launched as a standalone app from the Windows Start Menu, as well as being integrated within Visual Studio.  

This new version of the software includes numerous enhancements:

• Tighter integration with Visual Studio 2010 / 2012. Errors found by CheckMyConfig will show in the Visual Studio Error List, and you can double-click on these to navigate to the particular line in your config file that caused an error.
• CheckMyConfig API - to allow you to embed CheckMyConfig functionality within your own applications. See the sample client app included with the installer to see how to use this.
• Configurable timeouts for database connection strings, DNS lookups, Web and PING requests.
• Numerous UI improvements and bug fixes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What kinds of applications can it check ?

Web applications (ASP.NET MVC or WebForms), windows applications (WinForms or WPF), windows services, console applications.. Basically any .NET application that has an associated configuration file. We support .NET 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.5 and 4.0, for applications written in any Microsoft .NET language, including C# and Visual Basic.

What kinds of configuration settings can CheckMyConfig examine?

Database connection strings, files, folders, IP addresses, hostnames and URLs. If you can think of anything else you'd like to see in a future version, please let us know..

What kinds of checks can CheckMyConfig carry out?

• Check whether a database connection can be opened (includes SQL Server, Oracle, ODBC and other providers)
• Check whether a file/folder exists.
• Check whether a file/folder can be written to.
• Check whether you are attempting to connect from one active directory domain to another (typically from a PRODUCTION domain to a DEV domain).
• Check whether an IP address or host can be PINGED.
• Check whether a URL for a web site or web service can be requested successfully..

Will it detect all possible problems?

No, but it will detect a lot of them. After spending many years troubleshooting config problems in production environments, it has been our experience that the above checks will identify the majority of problems. You will never be any worse off as a result of running CheckMyConfig. In the same way that a virus scanner is still valuable, even though it won't pick up 100% of viruses.

We are concerned here with *critical* problems - as opposed to just best practice. For example, deploying a DEBUG build of your app into production is not best practice, for performance reasons - however your app will most likely still work. On the other hand, just try deploying an application that tries to connect to a non-existent database or access a file that doesn't exist !

Couldn't I just manually test the settings in my config file?

You could - but if it's anything other than a simple app it could be very painful and time consuming. CheckMyConfig will do this all for you in a few seconds, AND provide a nice report on its findings and recommendations!

Couldn't I just start up my program after I've installed it, to check whether my config file is correct?

Well, you could - if your application is very simple, and has only a handful of settings that you know for a fact will be read at start up time. The reality of commercial software development is that a lot of apps have very complex configuration files. For example, Bugtracker.NET (a popular open source bug tracking application) has around 68 user configurable settings (not counting all the bog standard built in .NET ones!). CMS (Content Management Systems) such as Kentico or Umbraco are another example of config-heavy applications, with large numbers of settings that relate to files and folders.

Do you really want to run through every manual test case (assuming you have them) to make sure everything's okay? Thought not! In some cases, configuration settings will be accessed only in certain circumstances - it's often time consuming or impractical to test these manually. You might think that your app is working fine, only to have it fall over at a later date when a user action triggers a call to access a file in a directory that doesn't exist, or connect to a database that's offline.

Does it change my config file?

Hell no! CheckMyConfig parses your settings, carries out the checks you want, and then provides you with a list of what it thinks may be wrong. The final decision lies with YOU, the developer, as to what you wish to change. You can then go away, fix the problem, come back and run the checks again to make sure everything's sweet with your app.. CheckMyConfig does NOT change your config file or mess with your app in any way. The only exception to this is the check for folder write permissions, which involves creating and then deleting a temporary file in the folder that you wish to check.

Can I just select certain settings, or types of checks?

Sure! If you want to, you could choose connection strings only or connection strings plus files and folders. For each setting you can tick/untick the treeview nodes to determine which checks will be carried out.

Can I save the reports and look at them later?

Sure, you can save them as an HTML report which you can send to someone else for troubleshooting purposes, or print.

Can I try out first?

Sure. Click here to download a 15 day trial version.

Where do I install it ?

You install it on the same machine as the software which you want to check. For example, if you want to check a production ASP.NET web application, you would install it on your web server.

What platforms does it run on?

Just .NET, for now.