How to get the values of a ConfigurationSection of type NameValueSectionHandler

Question

I m working with C   Framework 3 5  VS 2008    I m using the ConfigurationManager to load a config  not the default app config file  into a Configuration object   Using the Configuration class  I was able to get a ConfigurationSection  but I could not find a way to get the values of that section   In the config  the ConfigurationSection is of type System Configuration NameValueSectionHandler   For what it worth  when I used the method GetSection of the ConfigurationManager  works only when it was on my default app config file   I received an object type  that I could cast into collection of pairs of key-value  and I just received the value like a Dictionary  I could not do such cast when I received ConfigurationSection class from the Configuration class however   EDIT  Example of the config file    lt configuration gt     lt configSections gt       lt section name  MyParams                type  System Configuration NameValueSectionHandler    gt     lt  configSections gt      lt MyParams gt       lt add key  FirstParam  value  One   gt       lt add key  SecondParam  value  Two   gt     lt  MyParams gt   lt  configuration gt    Example of the way i was able to use it when it was on app config  the  GetSection  method is for the default app config only    NameValueCollection myParamsCollection                 NameValueCollection ConfigurationManager GetSection  MyParams     Console WriteLine myParamsCollection  FirstParam     Console WriteLine myParamsCollection  SecondParam

User · Answer

This is an old question  but I use the following class to do the job  It s based on Scott Dorman s blog   public class NameValueCollectionConfigurationSection   ConfigurationSection       private const string COLLECTION PROP NAME            public IEnumerable lt KeyValuePair lt string  string gt  gt  GetNameValueItems                 foreach   string key in this ConfigurationCollection AllKeys                         NameValueConfigurationElement confElement   this ConfigurationCollection key               yield return new KeyValuePair lt string  string gt                   confElement Name  confElement Value                         ConfigurationProperty COLLECTION PROP NAME  IsDefaultCollection   true       protected NameValueConfigurationCollection ConfCollection               get                       return  NameValueConfigurationCollection  base COLLECTION PROP NAME                     The usage is straightforward   Configuration configuration   ConfigurationManager OpenExeConfiguration ConfigurationUserLevel None   NameValueCollectionConfigurationSection config         NameValueCollectionConfigurationSection  configuration GetSection  MyParams     NameValueCollection myParamsCollection   new NameValueCollection    config GetNameValueItems   ToList   ForEach kvp   gt  myParamsCollection Add kvp

User · Answer

Try using an AppSettingsSection instead of a NameValueCollection  Something like this   var section    AppSettingsSection config GetSection sectionName   string results   section Settings key  Value    Source  http   social msdn microsoft com Forums en-US csharpgeneral thread d5079420-40cb-4255-9b3b-f9a41a1f7ad2

User · Answer

Here are some examples from this blog mentioned earlier    lt configuration gt          lt Database gt             lt add key  ConnectionString  value  data source   initial catalog NorthWind integrated security SSPI   gt          lt  Database gt       lt  configuration gt      get values      NameValueCollection db    NameValueCollection ConfigurationSettings GetConfig  Database                 labelConnection2 Text   db  ConnectionString      -  Another example    lt Locations     ImportDirectory  C  Import Inbox     ProcessedDirectory   C  Import Processed     RejectedDirectory   C  Import Rejected    gt    get value   Hashtable loc    Hashtable ConfigurationSettings GetConfig  Locations      labelImport2 Text   loc  ImportDirectory   ToString    labelProcessed2 Text   loc  ProcessedDirectory   ToString

User · Answer

The only way I can get this to work is to manually instantiate the section handler type  pass the raw XML to it  and cast the resulting object   Seems pretty inefficient  but there you go   I wrote an extension method to encapsulate this   public static class ConfigurationSectionExtensions       public static T GetAs lt T gt  this ConfigurationSection section                var sectionInformation   section SectionInformation           var sectionHandlerType   Type GetType sectionInformation Type           if  sectionHandlerType    null                        throw new InvalidOperationException string Format  Unable to find section handler type   0      sectionInformation Type                       IConfigurationSectionHandler sectionHandler          try                       sectionHandler    IConfigurationSectionHandler Activator CreateInstance sectionHandlerType                     catch  InvalidCastException ex                        throw new InvalidOperationException string Format  Section handler type   0   does not implement IConfigurationSectionHandler    sectionInformation Type   ex                      var rawXml   sectionInformation GetRawXml            if  rawXml    null                        return default T                      var xmlDocument   new XmlDocument            xmlDocument LoadXml rawXml            return  T sectionHandler Create null  null  xmlDocument DocumentElement             The way you would call it in your example is   var map   new ExeConfigurationFileMap       ExeConfigFilename     c   foo config     var configuration   ConfigurationManager OpenMappedExeConfiguration map  ConfigurationUserLevel None   var myParamsSection   configuration GetSection  MyParams    var myParamsCollection   myParamsSection GetAs lt NameValueCollection gt

User · Answer

Try this   Credit  https   www limilabs com blog read-system-net-mailsettings-smtp-settings-web-config  SmtpSection section    SmtpSection ConfigurationManager GetSection  system net mailSettings smtp     string from   section From  string host   section Network Host  int port   section Network Port  bool enableSsl   section Network EnableSsl  string user   section Network UserName  string password   section Network Password

User · Answer

Suffered from exact issue  Problem was because of NameValueSectionHandler in  config file  You should use AppSettingsSection instead     lt configuration gt     lt configSections gt       lt section  name  DEV  type  System Configuration AppSettingsSection    gt       lt section  name  TEST  type  System Configuration AppSettingsSection    gt    lt  configSections gt     lt TEST gt       lt add key  key  value  value1    gt    lt  TEST gt     lt DEV gt       lt add key  key  value  value2    gt    lt  DEV gt    lt  configuration gt    then in C  code   AppSettingsSection section    AppSettingsSection ConfigurationManager GetSection  TEST      btw NameValueSectionHandler is not supported any more in 2 0

User · Answer

Here s a good post that shows how to do it   If you want to read the values from a file other than the app config  you need to load it into the ConfigurationManager   Try this method  ConfigurationManager OpenMappedExeConfiguration    There s an example of how to use it in the MSDN article

[c#] How to get the values of a ConfigurationSection of type NameValueSectionHandler

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