Open web.config from console application?

Question

I have a console capplication that runs on the same computer that hosts a bunch of web.config files. I need the console application to open each web.config file and decrypt

Answer 1

The when the ConfigurationManager class grab a section from the config file, it has an "IsProtected" property that it can infer for a given section that you grab. If it is protected, you can then Unprotect it using some code.

The basic method for encrypting/decrypting goes like this (taken from article link below):

private void ProtectSection(string sectionName, string provider)
{
    Configuration config =
        WebConfigurationManager.
            OpenWebConfiguration(Request.ApplicationPath);

    ConfigurationSection section =
                 config.GetSection(sectionName);

    if (section != null &&
              !section.SectionInformation.IsProtected)
    {
        section.SectionInformation.ProtectSection(provider);
        config.Save();
    }
}

private void UnProtectSection(string sectionName)
{
    Configuration config =
        WebConfigurationManager.
            OpenWebConfiguration(Request.ApplicationPath);

    ConfigurationSection section =
              config.GetSection(sectionName);

    if (section != null &&
          section.SectionInformation.IsProtected)
    {
        section.SectionInformation.UnprotectSection();
        config.Save();
    }
}

Check out this article for the full details on working with this.

Answer 2

Ok I got it... compiled and accessed this so i know it works...

      VirtualDirectoryMapping vdm = new VirtualDirectoryMapping(@"C:\test", true);
            WebConfigurationFileMap wcfm = new WebConfigurationFileMap();
            wcfm.VirtualDirectories.Add("/", vdm);


            // Get the Web application configuration object.
            Configuration config = WebConfigurationManager.OpenMappedWebConfiguration(wcfm, "/");

            ProtectSection(config, @"connectionStrings", "DataProtectionConfigurationProvider");

This is assuming you have a file called web.config in a directory called C:\Test.

I adjusted @Dillie-O's methods to take a Configuration as a parameter.

You must also reference System.Web and System.configuration and any dlls containing configuration handlers that are set up in your web.config.

Answer 3

I think you want to use WebConfigurationManager class with its OpenWebConfiguration method.

It takes a path to the web.config and should open it just like it would in a HTTPContext based application.

Answer 4

    public static string WebKey(string key)
    {

        var configFile = new System.IO.FileInfo(webconfigPath);
        var vdm = new VirtualDirectoryMapping(configFile.DirectoryName, true, configFile.Name);
        var wcfm = new WebConfigurationFileMap();
        wcfm.VirtualDirectories.Add("/", vdm);
        System.Configuration.Configuration config = WebConfigurationManager.OpenMappedWebConfiguration(wcfm, "/");
        System.Configuration.AppSettingsSection appSettingSection = (System.Configuration.AppSettingsSection)config.GetSection("appSettings");
        System.Configuration.KeyValueConfigurationElement kv = appSettingSection.Settings.AllKeys
                         .Where(x => x.Equals(key))
                         .Select(x => appSettingSection.Settings[key])
                         .FirstOrDefault();

        return kv != null ? kv.Value : string.Empty;

    }