Create and Use a Custom Config File: ASP Alliance

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Create and Use a Custom Config File

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by Steven Archibald
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Create the Custom .config File

We’ll name the custom file Release.config. It will be placed in the same directory in which the standard Web.config file is found. The structure of this XML document is simple. The root element of this document is simply a name of a section that we will add to the standard Web.config file, following some rules described below. The name doesn’t really matter--we make it up. It would be nice to have it reflect the data and purpose of the section. We’ll call our section appReleaseSection. It is within this element that we add the code to define the names of our data elements and their values.

Listing 1 -The Custom .config File

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<appReleaseSection>
      <add key="ReleaseNumber" value="10.01.12.09" />
      <add key="ReleaseDate" value="08/03/2005" />
</appReleaseSection>

Seems simple so far. Note that we are using the same simple <add key> mechanism used in the normal <appSettings> section of the standard Web.config file. That means we can use the same handler in the next step.

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User Comments

Title: Thanks
Name: Rauf
Date: 2009-12-22 7:03:28 AM
Comment:
Very useful article. keep the good work going
Cheers!!

Title: Thanks
Name: Fawad
Date: 2009-11-20 10:22:09 AM
Comment:
Thanks buddy, loved the article. Here is a VB counterpart if anyone needs it:
===========================================================
********* Get Config Values ******************************
===========================================================
Public Shared Function GetConfigValue(ByVal strSectionName As String, ByVal strKeyName As String) As String

Dim temp As String = Nothing

Dim myData As NameValueCollection = DirectCast(ConfigurationManager.GetSection(strSectionName), _
NameValueCollection)

If myData Is Nothing Then
'Section name not found
Throw New NullReferenceException("Section name not found:" & strSectionName)
Else
'section found, try to get the value
temp = myData.Get(strKeyName)

If temp Is Nothing Then
'Key name not found, throw new exception
Throw New NullReferenceException("Key name not found: " & strKeyName)
End If
End If

End Function

===========================================================
**** Write Config Values (NOT TESTED BUT SHOULD WORK) ****
===========================================================

Public Shared Function UpdateConfigValue(ByVal strConfigFilePath As String, ByVal strSectionName As String, _
ByVal strKeyName As String, ByVal strValue As String) As Boolean

Dim xmlDoc As New XmlDocument
Dim flag As Boolean = False

xmlDoc.Load(strConfigFilePath)

For Each node As XmlNode In xmlDoc.Item(strSectionName)

'Look for add attribute
If node.Name = "add" Then

'see if we have specified key in config file
If node.Attributes.GetNamedItem("key").Value = strKeyName Then

'Key found, upd

Title: value not updated
Name: monaung
Date: 2009-05-10 2:44:36 AM
Comment:
if i am chaging the value in appReleaseSection in Cutom.Config file it is not reflecting. it gives me previous entered value why?
please can you mail me back how can i do this?
mon.aung@gmail.com

Title: config file not web.config/app.config
Name: sixYo
Date: 2009-04-07 12:51:29 AM
Comment:
you can store the data in a xml file without web.config / app.config

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/CustomXmlConfigForAspNet.aspx

Title: Little Change
Name: ACostaF
Date: 2008-04-18 9:51:47 AM
Comment:
Good article. In order to MSDN Library suggestion, you must use System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.GetSection instead of System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.GetConfig as ConfigurationSettings is obsolete.

Title: Need your help
Name: Sukki
Date: 2008-03-01 12:17:10 PM
Comment:
it works well for me but when i try to add a subsection it fails. How can i handle this

Title: Good One
Name: Rajesh
Date: 2007-07-24 6:16:13 AM
Comment:
Thanks Steven Archibald, this article was good and helped me a lot.

In addition to this, i wanted to use Release.xml file rather than Release.config file. Is the code works same for the .xml file?

Anticipating your response.

Rajesh

Title: Thank you!
Name: Chris Bidwill
Date: 2007-05-23 10:27:30 PM
Comment:
Thanks, this was a huge help. From all the other posts I've found out there it looked like creating custom sections was a huge pain (so much it was easier just to parse the xml doc). This saved me a lot of frustration.

Title: Good Work
Name: Satyam Kumar
Date: 2006-10-18 3:04:39 PM
Comment:
Thanks to aspalliance team.

Nice work done by team that i was looking for long time.

If any addition or Enhancement then pls let me know.

Satyam
satyam@rategain.com

Title: Custom.Config File
Name: Satyadeep Behera
Date: 2006-06-16 4:57:48 AM
Comment:
after updating the Custom.config file can i able to get the
new values that has been saved at run time, i have dataaccess layer and i want to fix this value here.
please help me.

Title: Custom.Config File
Name: Satyadeep Behera
Date: 2006-06-15 3:21:08 AM
Comment:
but is if i am chaging the value in appReleaseSection in Cutom.Config file it is not reflecting it gives me previous entered value why?
please can you mail me back how can i do this?
bsatyadeep@zilog.com