Where and how to store Your Application settings in SharePoint 2010

Most applications even SharePoint ones require some data to start. For instance a connection string or the location of a web service, this data often needs to be configurable by the consumer of our application. Conventional ASP.Net practices tell us to store this data in the web.config file, however when working with SharePoint that offers some potential issues. Using the Hierarchical Object Store for a Farm or the Property Bag of a Web Application or Site Collection or Web we can persist this information in the SharePoint database using the SharePoint API. This way we can provide our users the ability to update this information form Central Admin or Site Settings instead of having to update the web.config file on each of the SharePoint servers. I will demo an example of this and show you how you can make your apps more admin friendly, professional, and scalable.