.NET Configuration File Madness

THE SETUP

Pretend you want to open an app.config or web.config file.  OK, normally, that is easy.  But, let’s say you mange a bunch of config files, and you want to write a widget that can open any of them and edit them programmatically. That means opening a config file NOT part of your EXE or website.  Ah, now it gets more interesting.  First you think,”I know, I can use ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(path)!”

But then after a few hours of that madness driving me insane…I found a post that explains how that will never work.  So then, how CAN it work? I mean, why didn’t they just give folks access to a ConfigurationManager.OpenConfiguration(path)? The world may never know.

GO AHEAD, TRY THIS AT HOME

To make this work (and really, I lived in denial about how convoluted this was…), I had to use the ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedEXEConfiguration. The method I used, from this post*,  ended up looking something like:

using System.Configuration
.
.
.
public Configuration OpenConfig(string FileName)
{
Configuration cfg = null;
ExeConfigurationFileMap fileMap = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
fileMap.ExeConfigFilename = FileName;

try
{
cfg = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(fileMap, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
}
catch
{
//whatever you need to do
}

return cfg; //where you put this depends on how you want to handle try/catch/finally
}

So there you have it.  Good luck and happy multiple file configuring.  Maybe I will continue this post if I hit more exciting goodies.

*Note, if you haven’t found out the dark secret…you can STILL see the answers to Experts-Exchange articles by scrolling past all their “pressure to join” garbage…all the way to the bottom!   I think they know that blocking the answers will upset their user base greatly,  as well as reduce their SEO. Joining is still handy, but not required.

using System.Configuration
.
.
.
public Configuration OpenConfig(string FileName)
{
     Configuration cfg = null;
     ExeConfigurationFileMap fileMap = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
     fileMap.ExeConfigFilename = FileName;

     try
     {
          cfg = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(fileMap, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
     }
     catch
     {
          //whatever you need to do
     }

     return cfg; //where you put this depends on how you want to handle try/catch/finally
}