Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Binder

Provides the functionality to bind an object to data in configuration providers for Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.

Documentation can be found at https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/extensions/configuration

Contribution Bar

• We consider new features, new APIs, bug fixes, and performance changes

The APIs and functionality are mature, but do get extended occasionally.

Deployment

Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Binder is included in the ASP.NET Core shared framework. The package is deployed as out-of-band (OOB) too and can be referenced into projects directly.

Example

The following example shows how to bind a JSON configuration section to .NET objects.

using System;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;

class Settings
{
    public string Server { get; set; }
    public string Database { get; set; }
    public Endpoint[] Endpoints { get; set; }
}

class Endpoint
{
    public string IPAddress { get; set; }
    public int Port { get; set; }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Build a configuration object from JSON file
        IConfiguration config = new ConfigurationBuilder()
            .AddJsonFile("appsettings.json")
            .Build();

        // Bind a configuration section to an instance of Settings class
        Settings settings = config.GetSection("Settings").Get<Settings>();

        // Read simple values
        Console.WriteLine($"Server: {settings.Server}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Database: {settings.Database}");

        // Read nested objects
        Console.WriteLine("Endpoints: ");
        
        foreach (Endpoint endpoint in settings.Endpoints)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"{endpoint.IPAddress}:{endpoint.Port}");
        }
    }
}

To run this example, include an appsettings.json file with the following content in your project:

{
  "Settings": {
    "Server": "example.com",
    "Database": "Northwind",
    "Endpoints": [
      {
        "IPAddress": "192.168.0.1",
        "Port": "80"
      },
      {
        "IPAddress": "192.168.10.1",
        "Port": "8080"
      }
    ]
  }
}

You can include a configuration file using a code like this in your .csproj file:

<ItemGroup>
  <Content Include="appsettings.json">
    <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
  </Content>
</ItemGroup>