Question

I have a MyProject.config file that contains ConnectionStrings, AppSettings, and custom sections. I don’t want to have to duplicate these settings in the wcf app.config file. Is it possible to merge MyProject.config with app.config or web.config if it is hosted in IIS. If so, where in the code would I do this and how would it be done?

As an example, in MyProject.config, I have a section group called Common and in Common I have AppSettings and ConnectionStrings. I know I can duplicate this in app.config, but then I would have to maintain it in two places.

MyProject.config:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
    <configuration>
        <sectionGroup name="common">
            <section name="appSettings" />
            <section name="connectionStrings" />
        </sectionGroup>
   </configSections>

   <common>
       <appSettings>
           <add key="UserName" value="test" />
           <add key="Password" value="test" />
       </appSettings>
       <connectionstrings></connectionstrings>
  </common>

app.config for wcf contains ServiceModel configuration, I dont’ want to have to put the above in app.config. I want to read it, does this make sense?

Answer 1

WCF will only load the config based settings for a service from the .NET configuration file for an application (web.config for IIS hosted services). Essentially you are fighting the .NET configuration file model.

If you want to keep the files separate then decide what will act as your primary config file and then use the configSource model for combining multiple config files