Configuring a list in a .net configuration section

Question

I'm having troubles writing a configuration section for my application. All I need is to config a list of pairs which I would translate to an object. I have seen implementations using ConfigurationElement and ConfigurationElementCollection classes, but it looks horrible, and I actually forced my code and configuration to fit this solution. I do NOT want to use element with key-value attributes becuase it's not what I need. I want my configuration section to look like this:

<MySection>
    <Option>
       <City>aaa</City>
       <Country>bbb</Country>
    </Option>
     <Option>
       <City>ccc</City>
       <Country>ddd</Country>
    </Option>
    <Option>
       <City>eee</City>
       <Country>fff</Country>
    </Option>
</MySection>

Another oossible section:

<MySection>
    <Option City="aaa" Country="bbb"/>
    <Option City="ccc" Country="ddd"/>
    <Option City="eee" Country="fff"/>
</MySection>

Is there any class that might help me parse this without forcing my code to do ugly stuff?

thank you

what do you exactly mean with configuration section? Is it within some xml file or is it in the app.config/ web.config? — kloarubeek, Dec 25 '14 at 21:40
Ooh, I thought it was clear. It's in the app.config file, and I prefer not to create a seperate xml file and read it as a file... — user3688929, Dec 25 '14 at 21:42

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:05

You could go for 2 options:

Create a custom configuration section at a similar question on How to add a xml in web.config? or have a loook at a basic example here: https://web.archive.org/web/20201202223151/http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/020707-1.aspx
If you can store it in a simple list, go for a comma separated string in your appSettings:

 <appSettings>
   <add key="countryName" value="CityA, CityC, CityD" />
   <add key="countryName2" value="CityB, CityE" />
 </appsettings>

And read it like this:

string[] citiesPerCountry = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["countryName"].Split(',').Select(s => s.Trim()).ToArray();

Configuring a list in a .net configuration section

1 Answers1