A simple way to keep the settings of a Java application is represented by a text file with ".properties" extension containing the identifier of each setting associated with a specific value (this value may be a number, string, date, etc..). C# uses a similar approach, but the text file must be named "App.config". In both cases, in source code you must initialize a specific class for reading settings: this class has a method that returns the value (as string) associated with the specified setting identifier.

// Java example
Properties config = new Properties();
config.load(...);
String valueStr = config.getProperty("listening-port");
// ...

// C# example
NameValueCollection setting = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings;
string valueStr = setting["listening-port"];
// ...

In both cases we should parse strings loaded from the configuration file and assign the ??converted values to the related typed objects (parsing errors could occur during this phase). After the parsing step, we must check that the setting values ??belong to a specific domain of validity: for example, the maximum size of a queue should be a positive value, some values ??may be related (example: min < max), and so on.

Suppose that the application should load the settings as soon as it starts: in other words, the first operation performed by the application is to load the settings. Any invalid values for the settings ??must be replaced automatically with default values??: if this happens to a group of related settings, those settings are all set with default values.

The easiest way to perform these operations is to create a method that first parses all the settings, then checks the loaded values ??and finally sets any default values??. However maintenance is difficult if you use this approach: as the number of settings increases while developing the application, it becomes increasingly difficult to update the code.

In order to solve this problem, I had thought of using the Template Method pattern, as follows.

public abstract class Setting
{
    protected abstract bool TryParseValues();

    protected abstract bool CheckValues();

    public abstract void SetDefaultValues();

    /// <summary>
    /// Template Method
    /// </summary>
    public bool TrySetValuesOrDefault()
    {
        if (!TryParseValues() || !CheckValues())
        {
            // parsing error or domain error
            SetDefaultValues();
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    }
}

public class RangeSetting : Setting
{
    private string minStr, maxStr;
    private byte min, max;

    public RangeSetting(string minStr, maxStr)
    {
        this.minStr = minStr;
        this.maxStr = maxStr;
    }

    protected override bool TryParseValues()
    {
        return (byte.TryParse(minStr, out min)
            && byte.TryParse(maxStr, out max));
    }

    protected override bool CheckValues()
    {
        return (0 < min && min < max);
    }

    public override void SetDefaultValues()
    {
        min = 5;
        max = 10;
    }
}

The problem is that in this way we need to create a new class for each setting, even for a single value. Are there other solutions to this kind of problem?

In summary:

1. Easy maintenance: for example, the addition of one or more parameters.
2. Extensibility: a first version of the application could read a single configuration file, but later versions may give the possibility of a multi-user setup (admin sets up a basic configuration, users can set only certain settings, etc..).
3. Object oriented design.