Generic Method to Extract a Value from Configuration List

Here I will brief you about the method which will give you a Configuration value depending upon the key passed. Of course, the key and value pair will be residing in your SharePoint list.

Being a good developer you should make your application as configurable as possible to avoid last minute rush to small changes and hence resulting in another deployment of a solution.

E.g. Consider a case where you have marked your Custom Top Navigation code to have 6 nodes(Hard coded value / taken from constants ); But due to some requirement changes you need to make it 8 nodes now.How you will do it ? Again a Code Change ? If you do; this will require another solution deployment.

Instead of that; identify these kind of parameters in your custom application and try and make those as configurable as possible which may lead to changes in future.

For this to have create a new list Named Configuration Settings at root site collection (of course you can have any name), with 3 site columns :

1. Rename Title as Config Key : A key used in solution E.g. NumberOfTopNavigationNodes
   
   
2. Config Value : Value for a key E.g. 6
   
   
3. Description : Description of Key and Value or where it is pointing to. E.g. Number of top Navigation nodes used in Top Navigation web part under Controls WSP.

Note: I have used internal Name of Title column in query so rename the column aa.

Lets have a look at the code which will do it for us:

/// <summary>
/// method to retrive Configration value for corresponding key
/// </summary>
/// <param name="ConfigKey">Configration Key Value</param>
/// <returns>string of Configration value</returns>
public static string GetValueForCoreSettingsKey(SPWeb web, string configKey)
{
    string resultValue = string.Empty;
    try
    {
        if (web == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("Web");
        }
        else
        {
            SPQuery Query = new SPQuery();
            string query = "<Where><Eq><FieldRef Name = 'Title'/><Value Type='Text'>"
                           + configKey
                           + "</Value></Eq></Where>";
            Query.Query = query;
            SPList CoreConfigrationList = web.Lists.TryGetList("Configuration Settings");
            if (CoreConfigrationList != null)
            {
                SPListItemCollection ListItemCollection = CoreConfigrationList.GetItems(Query);

                if (ListItemCollection != null)
                {
                    foreach (SPListItem ListItem in ListItemCollection)
                    {
                        resultValue = ListItem["ConfigurationValue"].ToString();
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    catch (Exception)
    {
        throw;
    }
    return resultValue;
}

Here you need to pass the parameter of SPWeb Object and Configuration Key of which you need a value.

E.g. GetValueForCoreSettingsKey(web,NumberOfTopNavigationNodes)

By this way you can keep your application configurable and easy to maintain in future. Simply changing the value for an entry will solve your purpose.

Happy SharePoint!!!