Four Ways To Read Configuration Setting In C#

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>  
<configuration>  
  <configSections>     
    <sectionGroup name="BlogGroup">  
      <section name="PostSetting" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler"/>  
    </sectionGroup>  
    <section name="ProductSettings" type="ConfigurationExample.ProductSettings, ConfigurationExample"/>  
  </configSections>  
  
  <BlogGroup>  
    <PostSetting>  
      <add key="PostName" value="Getting Started With Config Section in .Net"/>  
      <add key="Category" value="C#"></add>  
      <add key="Author" value="Mukesh Kumar"></add>  
      <add key="PostedDate" value="28 Feb 2017"></add>  
    </PostSetting>  
  </BlogGroup>  
    
  <ProductSettings>  
    <DellSettings ProductNumber="20001" ProductName="Dell Inspiron" Color="Black" Warranty="2 Years" ></DellSettings>  
  </ProductSettings>  
    
  <startup>  
    <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5.2"/>  
  </startup>  
</configuration>

To read these types of configuration settings, we need to access the section. Based on the section group, we can get all the keys and their values, as shown below.

//Approach Three  
public static void GetConfigurationUsingSectionGroup()  
{  
    var PostSetting = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("BlogGroup/PostSetting") as NameValueCollection;  
    if (PostSetting.Count == 0)  
    {  
        Console.WriteLine("Post Settings are not defined");  
    }  
    else  
    {  
        foreach (var key in PostSetting.AllKeys)  
        {  
            Console.WriteLine(key + " = " + PostSetting[key]);  
        }  
    }  
}

When we implement the code given above, we get the output, as shown below.

Fourth approach

At last, we are on an advanced stage of the configuration settings. Sometimes, it is required to set up your all key/value pairs based on the custom class behavior, so that we can control the behavior from outside.

See the following class “DellFeatures”, which shows some custom properties of Dell laptops and we need to add it inside the configuration section. The following class contains some default values, if the value is not available in the configuration section.

using System;  
using System.Collections.Generic;  
using System.Configuration;  
using System.Linq;  
using System.Text;  
using System.Threading.Tasks;  
  
namespace ConfigurationExample  
{  
    public class DellFeatures : ConfigurationElement  
    {  
        [ConfigurationProperty("ProductNumber", DefaultValue = 00000, IsRequired = true)]  
        public int ProductNumber  
        {  
            get  
            {  
                return (int)this["ProductNumber"];  
            }  
            set  
            {  
                value = (int)this["ProductNumber"];  
            }  
        }  
  
        [ConfigurationProperty("ProductName", DefaultValue = "DELL", IsRequired = true)]  
        public string ProductName  
        {  
            get  
            {  
                return (string)this["ProductName"];  
            }  
            set  
            {  
                value = (string)this["ProductName"];  
            }  
        }  
  
        [ConfigurationProperty("Color", IsRequired = false)]  
        public string Color  
        {  
            get  
            {  
                return (string)this["Color"];  
            }  
            set  
            {  
                value = (string)this["Color"];  
            }  
        }  
        [ConfigurationProperty("Warranty", DefaultValue = "1 Years", IsRequired = false)]  
        public string Warranty  
        {  
            get  
            {  
                return (string)this["Warranty"];  
            }  
            set  
            {  
                value = (string)this["Warranty"];  
            }  
        }  
    }  
}

To return this setting, we are going to create one more class, which returns this as a property. Here, we can also add multiple classes as the properties.

using System;  
using System.Collections.Generic;  
using System.Configuration;  
using System.Linq;  
using System.Text;  
using System.Threading.Tasks;  
  
namespace ConfigurationExample  
{  
    public class ProductSettings : ConfigurationSection  
    {  
        [ConfigurationProperty("DellSettings")]  
        public DellFeatures DellFeatures  
        {  
            get  
            {  
                return (DellFeatures)this["DellSettings"];  
            }  
            set  
            {  
                value = (DellFeatures)this["DellSettings"];  
            }  
        }  
    }  
}

To implement it inside the configuration section, we are going to change the type of “ProductSettings” as “ConfigurationExample.ProductSettings”, which will return all the properties of DellFeatures class.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>  
<configuration>  
  <configSections>     
      
    <section name="ProductSettings" type="ConfigurationExample.ProductSettings, ConfigurationExample"/>  
  </configSections>  
  
  <BlogGroup>  
    <PostSetting>  
      <add key="PostName" value="Getting Started With Config Section in .Net"/>  
      <add key="Category" value="C#"></add>  
      <add key="Author" value="Mukesh Kumar"></add>  
      <add key="PostedDate" value="28 Feb 2017"></add>  
    </PostSetting>  
  </BlogGroup>  
    
  <ProductSettings>  
    <DellSettings ProductNumber="20001" ProductName="Dell Inspiron" Color="Black" Warranty="2 Years" ></DellSettings>  
  </ProductSettings>  
    
  <startup>  
    <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5.2"/>  
  </startup>  
</configuration>

To access this type of configuration, we need to get the custom section first and the rest of it will be accessible very easily, as shown below.

//Approach Four  
public static void GetConfigurationUsingCustomClass()  
{  
    var productSettings = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("ProductSettings") as ConfigurationExample.ProductSettings;  
    if (productSettings == null)  
    {  
        Console.WriteLine("Product Settings are not defined");  
    }  
    else  
    {  
        var productNumber = productSettings.DellFeatures.ProductNumber;  
        var productName = productSettings.DellFeatures.ProductName;  
        var color = productSettings.DellFeatures.Color;  
        var warranty = productSettings.DellFeatures.Warranty;  

        Console.WriteLine("Product Number = " + productNumber);  
        Console.WriteLine("Product Name = " + productName);  
        Console.WriteLine("Product Color = " + color);  
        Console.WriteLine("Product Warranty = " + warranty);  
    }  
}  

When we implement the code given above, we get the output, as shown below.

We have seen different ways to define the configuration setting inside the configuration file and access/read it.

I hope this post helps you. Please give your feedback, which will help me to improve the next post. If you have any doubts, please ask your query in the comment section.