SlowCheetah - Web.config Transformation Syntax now generalized for any XML configuration file - Init

<body> <h1>SlowCheetah - Web.config Transformation Syntax now generalized for any XML configuration file</h1> <div><p>I did a post last year called <a href="http://www.hanselman.com/blog/WebDeploymentMadeAwesomeIfYoureUsingXCopyYoureDoingItWrong.aspx">If You're Using XCopy, You're Doing It Wrong</a> that also included a video of my talk at Mix10 where I show how to deploy website with Web Deploy. One of the cooler not-very-well-known features is called Web.config Transformation. Once folks see it, then immediately want a general solution. </p> <p>First, from the previous post:</p> <blockquote> <p><em>You can right-click on your web.config and click "Add Config Transforms." When you do this, you'll get a web.debug.config and a web.release.config. You can make a web.whatever.config if you like, as long as the name lines up with a configuration profile. These files are just the changes you want made, not a complete copy of your web.config.</em></p> <p><em>You might think you'd want to use XSLT to transform a web.config, but while they feels intuitively right it's actually very verbose.</em></p> <p><em>Here's two transforms, one using XSLT and the same one using the XML Document Transform syntax/namespace. As with all things there's multiple ways in XSLT to do this, but you get the general idea. XSLT is a generalized tree transformation language, while this deployment one is optimized for a specific subset of common scenarios. But, the cool part is that each XDT transform is a .NET plugin, so you can make your own.</em></p> </blockquote> <pre class="brush: xml; toolbar: false; auto-links: false;"><?xml version="1.0" ?><br /><xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0"><br /><xsl:template match="@*|node()"><br />  <xsl:copy>           <br />    <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/><br />  </xsl:copy><br /></xsl:template><br /><xsl:template match="/configuration/appSettings"><br />  <xsl:copy><br />    <xsl:apply-templates select="node()|@*"/><br />    <xsl:element name="add"><br />      <xsl:attribute name="key">NewSetting</xsl:attribute><br />      <xsl:attribute name="value">New Setting Value</xsl:attribute><br />    </xsl:element><br />  </xsl:copy><br /></xsl:template><br /></xsl:stylesheet></pre> <blockquote> <p><em>Or the same thing via the deployment transform:</em></p> </blockquote> <pre class="brush: xml; toolbar: false; auto-links: false;"><configuration xmlns:xdt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/XML-Document-Transform"><br /> <appSettings><br /> <add name="NewSetting" value="New Setting Value" xdt:Transform="Insert"/><br /> </appSettings><br /></configuration></pre> <p>This kind of config file transformation is so useful in fact, that it's one of the #1 feature requests...as a generalized solution.<strong> Folks want to transform their app.configs, or any XML file as part of their builds.</strong> Additionally, the current system only runs the transforms as a part of the publish process and folks would rather the transform happen "on F5" or on build. So, <a href="http://sedodream.com/2011/08/17/AppconfigTransformVisualStudioAddIn.aspx">my team members <strong>Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi</strong> and <strong>Chuck England</strong> have done just that as a small VSiX</a> called <a href="http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/69023d00-a4f9-4a34-a6cd-7e854ba318b5"><strong>SlowCheetah XML Transforms</strong></a>.</p> <p>In this screenshot I've created a simple Console Application, made a basic app.config, then right clicked and selected "Add Transform." This gives an app.debug.config and </p></div></body>