Multiple appSettings section in web.config

Question

Is this possible in anyway? For example through having named appSettings sections, or appSettings nested in other named sections.

I want to achieve something like the following:

<section name="development">
    <appSettings>
    </appSettings>
</section>

<section name="test">
    <appSettings>
    </appSettings>
</section>


string connectionString 
   = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("test").AppSettings["connectionString"];

What is the pattern for this?

Answer 1

Assuming that what you're trying to do is simply apply a different connection string (or manipulate other web.config settings) when deploying to different environments, what you're looking for is config transforms . This is fastest, easiest and correct way to handle this situation.

Answer 2

The appSetting element supports a "file" attribute, which lets you specify a filename were key/values can be placed.

This lets you not share with the team the values you've specified in user.config.

I think , if you define a single key in both the parent and child config files, the child value will be ignored and the parent value will be respected.

Further Reading

Answer 3

What you are trying to achieve will not work this way. The "best" (IMHO) technique for this is to create 3 files app(or web).config dev.config and test.config (and perhaps release.config). Then in the solution properties you can execute a pre-build command to copy the appropriate .config file so that it becomes "active" based on the build type, into the app.config (or web.config).

you can learn more about this http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa983464%28v=vs.80%29.aspx and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ke5z92ks.aspx

Scott Hanselman has a great article on this approach: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ManagingMultipleConfigurationFileEnvironmentsWithPreBuildEvents.aspx

So you need to do this at runtime:

If you want to get different settings at run time then the approach that will probably work best is to establish a naming convention like:

<appSettings>
   <add name="fearofawhackplanet.connectionString" value="your connection string" />
   <add name="cosCallis.connectionString" value="my connection string" />
</appSettings>

I trust from there you can see how to manage this at runtime to get the key/values you need.

Answer 4

I found custom sections to be most flexible for that. See "configSections Element (General Settings Schema)" in MSDN.

<sampleSection serverInstanceLabel1="alex" setting1="Value1"
               setting2="value two"/> 

So, in your case you can have sections like:sampleSection,sampleSection1,...