Getting configuration settings from web.config/app.config using class library

Question

Configuration settings in 3.5 is driving me nuts... Help! ;)

I have a class library (Named ADI), that needs some configuration settings from the project using it (li

Answer 1

Add reference System.web; add name space and user

using System.Web.Configuration;    

String webConfigValue;
            webConfigValue = WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["employeeDB"].ToString();

to read the web config value

<appSettings>
        <add key="employeeDB" value="Data Source=servername;Initial Catalog=employee;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=userid;Password=password;"/>        
</appSettings>

Answer 2

For ApplicationSettings you should use:

[YourNamespace].Properties.Settings.Default.[YourSettingName]

This provides a strongly typed reference to your setting and returns the default value if one is not defined in the web.config file. For AppSettings you should use:

System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings

Answer 3

If you're not after structured settings, the appSettings section just takes key-value pairs:

<appSettings>
  <add key="ADIImageRoot" value="C:\DataTemp\ADI\Original\" />
  <add key="ADIImageVariantsRoot" value="C:\DataTemp\ADI\Variants\" />
</appSettings>

This will enable you to access them via the AppSettings dictionary:

ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ADIImageVariantsRoot"]

As you would expect.

Alternatively, if you need more structure to your configuration (i.e. more than just strings, or a collection of settings), you can look into using a configuration section of your own, using a ConfigurationSection, and its relevant parts.

Answer 4

You seem to be using the Settings stuff built into visual studio. This generates a wrapper class related to the file, called, in your case MySettings.

You can thus write something like MySettings.Instance.ADIImageVariantsRoot. (If you click show all files in the project toolbox, it will show you the .settings.cs file and you can see all the gory details)