How can I include a CDATA section in a ConfigurationElement?

Question

I'm using the .NET Fx 3.5 and have written my own configuration classes which inherit from ConfigurationSection/ConfigurationElement. Currently I end up with something that looks like this in my configuration file:

<blah.mail>
    <templates>
        <add name="TemplateNbr1" subject="..." body="Hi!\r\nThis is a test.\r\n.">
            <from address="blah@hotmail.com" />
        </add>
    </templates>
</blah.mail>

I would like to be able to express the body as a child node of template (which is the add node in the example above) to end up with something that looks like:

<blah.mail>
    <templates>
        <add name="TemplateNbr1" subject="...">
            <from address="blah@hotmail.com" />
            <body><![CDATA[Hi!
This is a test.
]]></body>
        </add>
    </templates>
</blah.mail>

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 29 '10 at 15:08

5

In your custom configuration element class you need to override method OnDeserializeUnrecognizedElement.

Example:

public class PluginConfigurationElement : ConfigurationElement
{
    public NameValueCollection CustomProperies { get; set; }

    public PluginConfigurationElement()
    {
        this.CustomProperties = new NameValueCollection();
    }

    protected override bool OnDeserializeUnrecognizedElement(string elementName, XmlReader reader)
    {
        this.CustomProperties.Add(elementName, reader.ReadString());
        return true;
    }
}

I had to solve the same issue.

edited Oct 29 '10 at 15:08

Lucero

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answered Jan 21 '09 at 12:35

frantisek

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1

I don't think this works in .net 4.5. The exception is thrown before those overrides are hit. – JoshBerke Jul 01 '13 at 18:54

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 17 '09 at 20:02

4

In your ConfigurationElement subclass, try overriding SerializeElement using XmlWriter.WriteCData to write your data, and overriding DeserializeElement using XmlReader.ReadContentAsString to read it back.

answered Jan 17 '09 at 20:02

oefe

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How can I include a CDATA section in a ConfigurationElement?

2 Answers2