Cake Model Binding

NaiveModelBinder.cake

using System.ComponentModel;

// Uses cake Configuration to bind a model
// Configuration values should come from
// 1 - CAKE_ prefixed env vars
// 2 - cake.config files
// 3 - cmdline arguments
class NaiveModelBinder
{
    private readonly Func<string, string> getValue;
    private readonly Action<string> log;
    public NaiveModelBinder(ICakeContext context)
    {
        this.getValue = context.Configuration.GetValue;
        this.log = context.Debug;
    }

    public T Bind<T>()
    {
        log($"\nBinding configuration values to model {typeof(T).Name}");
        return (T)this.Bind(typeof(T));
    }

    private object Bind(Type type, string prefix = "")
    {
        var props = type.GetProperties();
        var instance = Activator.CreateInstance(type);
        foreach (var prop in props)
        {
            if (TryGetValue(prop.PropertyType, prop.Name, prefix, out var value))
            {
                if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(string) || !prop.PropertyType.IsClass)
                {
                    log($"{(prefix + prop.Name).Replace("_", ".")}={value}");
                }
                prop.SetValue(instance, value);
            }
        }
        return instance;
    }

    private bool TryGetValue(Type type, string name, string prefix, out object value)
    {
        var stringValue = this.getValue(prefix + name);
        if (type == typeof(string))
        {
            value = stringValue;
            return stringValue != null;
        }

        if (type.IsGenericType && type.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof(Nullable<>))
        {
            return TryGetValue(Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(type), name, prefix, out value);
        }

        if (type.IsClass)
        {
            value = Bind(type, prefix + name + "_");
            return true;
        }

        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(stringValue))
        {
            value = null;
            return false;
        }
        value = TypeDescriptor
            .GetConverter(type)
            .ConvertFromInvariantString(stringValue);
        return true;
    }
}

T Bind<T>() => new NaiveModelBinder(Context).Bind<T>();

Example usage