How can I add a section to a web.config using PowerShell?

Question

How can I add a section to system.serviceModel in a web.config, if it doesn't already exist?

Before:

<system.serviceModel>
  <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" />
</system.serviceModel>

After:

<system.serviceModel>
 <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" />
 <bindings>
      <basicHttpBinding>
        <binding name="ValidationServiceSoap" closeTimeout="00:01:00" openTimeout="00:01:00" receiveTimeout="00:10:00" sendTimeout="00:01:00" allowCookies="false" bypassProxyOnLocal="false" hostNameComparisonMode="StrongWildcard" maxBufferSize="65536" maxBufferPoolSize="524288" maxReceivedMessageSize="65536" messageEncoding="Text" textEncoding="utf-8" transferMode="Buffered" useDefaultWebProxy="true">
          <readerQuotas maxDepth="32" maxStringContentLength="8192" maxArrayLength="16384" maxBytesPerRead="4096" maxNameTableCharCount="16384" />
          <security mode="Transport">
            <transport clientCredentialType="Ntlm" />
            <message clientCredentialType="UserName" />
          </security>
        </binding>
      </basicHttpBinding>
 <bindings>
</system.serviceModel>

Why do you want to do this from PowerShell? It doesn't appear to be the proper tool for the job. — Ken White, Apr 26 '12 at 23:19
Because it is automation deployment services, and hands do it enough. — Sergei Shardiko, Apr 26 '12 at 23:23

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 27 '12 at 00:21

It's not too bad to do this in PowerShell:

$origXml = [xml]@'
<configuration>
<system.serviceModel> 
  <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" /> 
</system.serviceModel> 
</configuration>
'@

$newXml = @'
 <bindings> 
      <basicHttpBinding> 
        <binding name="ValidationServiceSoap" closeTimeout="00:01:00" openTimeout="00:01:00" receiveTimeout="00:10:00" sendTimeout="00:01:00" allowCookies="false" bypassProxyOnLocal="false" hostNameComparisonMode="StrongWildcard" maxBufferSize="65536" maxBufferPoolSize="524288" maxReceivedMessageSize="65536" messageEncoding="Text" textEncoding="utf-8" transferMode="Buffered" useDefaultWebProxy="true"> 
          <readerQuotas maxDepth="32" maxStringContentLength="8192" maxArrayLength="16384" maxBytesPerRead="4096" maxNameTableCharCount="16384" /> 
          <security mode="Transport"> 
            <transport clientCredentialType="Ntlm" /> 
            <message clientCredentialType="UserName" /> 
          </security> 
        </binding> 
      </basicHttpBinding> 
 </bindings> 
'@

if (!$origXml.configuration.'system.serviceModel'.bindings)
{
    $tempXmlDoc = new-object System.Xml.XmlDocument
    $tempXmlDoc.LoadXml($newXml)
    $newNode = $origXml.ImportNode($tempXmlDoc.DocumentElement, $true)
    $origXml.configuration.'system.serviceModel'.AppendChild($newNode)
}

Note that this approach only works because the XML you want to inject has a single root element <bindings>.

How can use this from open XML files? $xml = [xml](Get-Content $MainBinding) # $MainBinding - variable from web.config file - C:\web.config $xml.Save($MainBinding) — Sergei Shardiko, Apr 27 '12 at 00:30
In the example above, `$origXml` *is* an open XML file. `$newXml` is just a string fragment that is valid XML. — Keith Hill, Apr 27 '12 at 00:38

How can I add a section to a web.config using PowerShell?

1 Answers1