Parses Visual Studio launchSettings.json

I have a suite of acceptance tests that interact with authenticated environments. The tests get the logon details from environment variables, because I'd rather manage those secrets in my build system instead of a configuration file.

Occasionally I need to investigate issues in these environments and need the logon details. I don't want to edit environment variables when I test different environments, so instead I keep those logon details in the launchSettings.json of the acceptance tests project. (.gitignore this file if you want to do the same.)

async Task Example()
{
    var launchSettings = VisualStudioLaunchSettings.FromCaller();
    var profiles = launchSettings.GetProfiles();
    var profile = profiles.FirstOrEmpty();

    var client = await AppEnvironment.FromEnvironment(profile.EnvironmentVariables).CreateClient();
    // use the client
}

There are two ways I use this library. If you want to use it, first you need to add it to your project - you can find it on Nuget

Just grab the first one.

var launchSettings = VisualStudioLaunchSettings.FromCaller();
var profiles = launchSettings.GetProfiles();
var profile = profiles.FirstOrEmpty();

Really simple if you have one, but if you have many and don't want to use a named profile, you can use this dotnet cli command to (I've lost the link) you'll have to order you profiles.

If you intend to use a named profile, you need to ensure it exists before you attempt to use it.

var launchSettings = VisualStudioLaunchSettings.FromCaller();
var profiles = launchSettings.GetProfiles();
var (exists, profile) = profiles.Use("does-not-exist");
// Check exists before you use it!

Theres is alternative syntax to deconstructing the values - invoking Match() instead:

var launchSettings = VisualStudioLaunchSettings.FromCaller();
var profiles = launchSettings.GetProfiles();
profiles
    .Use("does-not-exist")
    .Match(
        () => { Console.WriteLine($"The profile does not exist."); },
        profile => { Console.WriteLine($"The profile exists."););

There is a functional version too:

var launchSettings = VisualStudioLaunchSettings.FromCaller();
var profiles = launchSettings.GetProfiles();
var profile = profiles
    .Use("does-not-exist")
    .Match(() => default, (Profile x) => x);

The project uses GitVersion. Versions are bumped by including +semver:{n}, where {n} is major, minor or patch, in the commit message. See GitVersion configuration documentation.