different config files on C# projects

Question

I've two projects: UI (Winforms application) and Core (dll). Each project has to own its config file.

For example:

Core project (settings.config)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <appSettings>
        <add key="environment" value="development"/>
    </appSettings>
</configuration>

UI project (app.config)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <appSettings>
        <add key="skin" value="win"/>
    </appSettings>
</configuration>

From Core I read settings.config as:

System.Configuration.ConfigurationFileMap fileMap = new System.Configuration.ConfigurationFileMap("settings.config");
System.Configuration.Configuration configuration = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedMachineConfiguration(fileMap);
string environment = configuration.AppSettings.Settings["environment"].Value;

At this point crashes and dumps me that it's unable to cast System.Configuration.DefaultSection to System.Configuration.AppSettingsSection .

Answer 1

I think what you need is this

        ExeConfigurationFileMap configFileMap = new ExeConfigurationFileMap()
        {
            ExeConfigFilename = "settings.config"
        };
        var configuration = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(configFileMap,
           ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
        var section = (AppSettingsSection)configuration.GetSection("appSettings");
        string value = section.Settings["environment"].Value;