Castle Windsor / ActiveRecord / NHibernate: How to intercept/modify connection string

Question

I have consolidated the connection string information for a number of C# .NET solutions that are in my possession. Previously, each project was storing its connection string in its own format, requiring me to modify several files for each installation of the software.

Only one remaining solution is giving me trouble. This particular solution uses Castle Windsor 2.0, ActiveRecord 2.0 and NHibernate 2.1. The code reads its configuration from an XML file. I wish to remove the connection string from the config file and set it programmatically in the code.

Here is the relevant section of code that initiates Windsor:

windsorContainer = new WindsorContainer(new XmlInterpreter(xmlFileName));
windsorContainer.Resolve<IWindsorConfigurator>().Configure(windsorContainer);
logger = windsorContainer.Resolve<ILogger>();

Here are the contents of the XML file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
  <properties>
    <connectionString>Server=*****;Database=*****;User Id=*****;Password=*****</connectionString>
  </properties>
  <facilities>
    <facility id="logging" type="Castle.Facilities.Logging.LoggingFacility, Castle.Facilities.Logging" loggingApi="log4net" configFile="Configs/log4net.config" />
    <facility id="atm" type="Castle.Facilities.AutomaticTransactionManagement.TransactionFacility, Castle.Facilities.AutomaticTransactionManagement" />
    <facility id="arfacility" type="Castle.Facilities.ActiveRecordIntegration.ActiveRecordFacility, Castle.Facilities.ActiveRecordIntegration" isDebug="false" isWeb="false">
      <!-- Configure the namespaces for the models using Active Record Integration -->
      <assemblies>
        <item>ChronoSteril.Application</item>
      </assemblies>
      <config>
        <add key="connection.driver_class" value="NHibernate.Driver.SqlClientDriver" />
        <add key="dialect" value="NHibernate.Dialect.MsSql2005Dialect" />
        <add key="connection.provider" value="NHibernate.Connection.DriverConnectionProvider" />
        <add key="connection.connection_string" value="#{connectionString}" />
        <add key="hibernate.cache.provider_class" value="NHibernate.Caches.SysCache.SysCacheProvider, NHibernate.Caches.SysCache" />
        <add key="proxyfactory.factory_class" value="NHibernate.ByteCode.Castle.ProxyFactoryFactory, NHibernate.ByteCode.Castle" />
        <add key="hibernate.expiration" value="60" />
      </config>
    </facility>
  </facilities>
  <components>
    <component id="windsorConfigurator" service="ChronoSteril.Application.IWindsorConfigurator, ChronoSteril.Application" type="ChronoSteril.WinApp.ClarionIntegrationWindsorConfigurator, ChronoSteril.WinApp" />
  </components>

I am not familiar with Windsor. During my Google tour, I did see some code that adds facilities programmatically, but those examples were not valid for my version of Windsor (I assume).

Question: Can anyone guide me in removing the connection string information from the XML file and allow me to set it in the code?

Thank you!

Answer 1

I managed to accomplish my intention. It is not ideal, but will work until the code base is rewritten. (I cannot wait to drop the existing code like a bad dream.)

Patrick's comment, under my initial question, let me to refine my search criteria, which yielded the thread located here.

My XML file remains the same, except that I use bogus values for the connection string information. I will never need to modify these, and they do not reveal any valid connection information. This was my intention. I still have not discovered how to successfully remove the ActiveRecord configuration from the XML file and configure using code.

I now call a method that contains the following code:

ISessionFactoryHolder sessionFactoryHolder = ActiveRecordMediator.GetSessionFactoryHolder();
NHibernate.Cfg.Configuration configuration = sessionFactoryHolder.GetConfiguration(typeof(ActiveRecordBase));
connectionString = ReadConnectionString();
configuration.SetProperty("connection.connection_string", connectionString);

This works for me. I hope that it can also help someone else who is in the same position as I was.