Solved as below!! - I have multiple WPF projects with individual App.Config with custom sections. All custom sections have the same structure.
For one project, I used ConfigurationManager and created Custom ConfigurationSection, ConfigurationCollection, ConfigurationElement and everything works fine for that project.
Then I moved my custom configuration classes in a class library so that I can use them in all the projects, but now I am getting 'System.TypeInitializationException' error when I run the project. This seems to be because now ConfigurationManager can't locate the App.
I can copy paste the class in all the projects and it works fine but I don't want to do that. May be I am probably missing something obvious. Any help is very much appreciated. Thanks!!!
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Configuration;
namespace WordAddinForms
{
public class CustomConfig : ConfigurationSection
{
public static readonly CustomConfig Settings =
(CustomConfig)ConfigurationManager.GetSection("custom-configuration");
[ConfigurationProperty("activities")]
public ActivityElementCollection Activities
{
get { return (ActivityElementCollection)base["activities"]; }
}
}
[ConfigurationCollection(typeof(ActivityElement), AddItemName = "activity",
CollectionType = ConfigurationElementCollectionType.AddRemoveClearMap)]
public class ActivityElementCollection : ConfigurationElementCollection, IEnumerable<ActivityElement>
{
IEnumerator<ActivityElement> IEnumerable<ActivityElement>.GetEnumerator()
{
return this.OfType<ActivityElement>().GetEnumerator();
}
public override ConfigurationElementCollectionType CollectionType
{
get { return ConfigurationElementCollectionType.BasicMap; }
}
protected override string ElementName
{
get { return "activity"; }
}
protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement()
{
return new ActivityElement();
}
protected override object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element)
{
return (element as ActivityElement).Name;
}
public ActivityElement this[int index]
{
get { return (ActivityElement)base.BaseGet(index); }
set
{
if (base.BaseGet(index) != null)
{
base.BaseRemoveAt(index);
}
base.BaseAdd(index, value);
}
}
public ActivityElement this[string name]
{
get { return (ActivityElement)base.BaseGet(name); }
}
}
public class ActivityElement : ConfigurationElement
{
[ConfigurationProperty("name", DefaultValue = "String.Empty")]
public string Name
{
get { return (string)base["name"]; }
}
[ConfigurationProperty("location", DefaultValue = "String.Empty")]
public string Location
{
get { return (string)base["location"]; }
}
[ConfigurationProperty("files")]
public FileElementCollection Files
{
get { return (FileElementCollection)base["files"]; }
}
}
[ConfigurationCollection(typeof(FileElement), AddItemName = "file",
CollectionType = ConfigurationElementCollectionType.AddRemoveClearMap)]
public class FileElementCollection : ConfigurationElementCollection, IEnumerable<FileElement>
{
IEnumerator<FileElement> IEnumerable<FileElement>.GetEnumerator()
{
return this.OfType<FileElement>().GetEnumerator();
}
public override ConfigurationElementCollectionType CollectionType
{
get { return ConfigurationElementCollectionType.BasicMap; }
}
protected override string ElementName
{
get { return "file"; }
}
protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement()
{
return new FileElement();
}
protected override object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element)
{
return (element as FileElement).Name;
}
public FileElement this[int index]
{
get { return (FileElement)base.BaseGet(index); }
set
{
if (base.BaseGet(index) != null)
{
base.BaseRemoveAt(index);
}
base.BaseAdd(index, value);
}
}
public FileElement this[string name]
{
get { return (FileElement)base.BaseGet(name); }
}
}
public class FileElement : ConfigurationElement
{
[ConfigurationProperty("name", DefaultValue = "String.Empty")]
public string Name
{
get { return (string)base["name"]; }
}
/// <remarks />
[ConfigurationProperty("location", DefaultValue = "String.Empty")]
public string Location
{
get { return (string)base["location"]; }
}
}
}
Edit -- App.config file -
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<custom-configuration>
<activities>
<activity name="Activities" location=".\Activity\">
<files>
<file name="Running" location=".Running\"/>
<file name="Sports" location=".Sports\"/>
<file name="Fun" location=".Fun\"/>
<file name="Exercise" location=".Exercise\"/>
</files>
</activity>
</activities>
</custom-configuration>
Question rephrased - So,
1) I have multiple app.config for various projects in the structure mentioned above
2) I have created custom configuration classes as shown in the code above
I need to put them in a class library\shared library so that I can reuse the classes instead of copy-pasting them in individual projects. When I put the classes in shared library, the project rebuilds fine but it fails when I run it.
Answer - Clearly I need to get the basics right. After shifting the code to class library, I had to update app.config accordingly as the namespace and location for the class has now changed. Sorry for the inconvenience. Basically, I needed to update "type" of the section as the class now belongs to different assembly.
