How to use sections in an app.config that's in a web.config?

Question

My web.config looks like this:

<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <appSettings configSource="Exampleapp.config" />
    <connectionStrings configSource="ExampleProd.config" />
  </configSections>
<configuration>

My app.config (Exampleapp.config) looks like this:

<configSections>
  <sectionGroup name="exampleSettings">
    <section name="blah" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler" />
    <section name="foo" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler" />
  </sectionGroup>
</configSections>
<exampleSettings>
  <blah>
    <add key="me" value="1" />
  </blah>
  <foo>
    <add key="you" value="2" />
  </foo>
</exampleSettings>

I'm getting an error that says: XML document cannot contain multiple root level elements. How do I resolve this?

@Nilesh If I put configuration, then I get an error that says: The format of a configSource file must be an element containing the name of the section. — dotnetN00b, Aug 26 '13 at 11:15

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

0

According to this post, you get that error because the XML document must only have one root element and you currently have two. Try something like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<config>
     *Your code goes here*
</config>

edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

Community

1
1

answered Aug 26 '13 at 10:44

m-oliv

419
11
27

Whatever I put as the root element gives the error: The "x" element is not declared. – dotnetN00b Aug 26 '13 at 11:17
@dotnetN00b, take a look at the answer to [this post](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7684398/the-packages-element-is-not-declared). – m-oliv Aug 26 '13 at 11:19

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 26 '13 at 10:45

0

As error clearly specifies, You only need to have one root element in XML file. Put you two parent elements in one parent element like,

<rootEle>

<configSections>
  <sectionGroup name="exampleSettings">
     <section name="blah" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler" />
     <section name="foo" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler" />
  </sectionGroup>
</configSections>
<exampleSettings>
  <blah>
     <add key="me" value="1" />
  </blah>
  <foo>
     <add key="you" value="2" />
  </foo>
</exampleSettings>

</rootEle>

It should work.

answered Aug 26 '13 at 10:45

hnDabhi

75
8

Whatever I put as the root element gives the error: The "x" element is not declared. – dotnetN00b Aug 26 '13 at 11:16
I think in your **web.config** `appSettings` should be under `configuration` directly and not under `configSections`. – hnDabhi Aug 26 '13 at 11:44

How to use sections in an app.config that's in a web.config?

2 Answers2