Question

I know that there are tons of links about creating custom configuration sections out there, and tens of related questions has been asked here before. But I couldn’t solve my problem.

I’m able to create custom configuration sections, which are like:

  <publicPaths>
    <paths>
      <add name="ProductServices" address="/services/productservices.asmx" />
      <add name="LoginByToken" address="LoginByToken.ashx" />
    </paths>
  </publicPaths>

However, as you see, the meet of this configuration section (which is the items added to it) are at the 3rd nested level. In other words, you should traverse publicPaths -> paths -> add to get to the element representing the item. But what I want is a 2-level nesting, like:

    <paths>
      <add name="ProductServices" address="/services/productservices.asmx" />
      <add name="LoginByToken" address="LoginByToken.ashx" />
    </paths>

What should I do?

Update: The code of my 3-level custom configuration section is:

public class PublicPaths : ConfigurationSection
{
    private static PublicPaths publicPaths = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("publicPaths") as PublicPaths;

    public static PublicPaths Instance
    {
        get { return publicPaths; }
    }

    [ConfigurationProperty("paths", IsRequired = false)]
    public PathCollection Paths
    {
        get { return this["paths"] as PathCollection; }
    }
}

public class PathCollection : ConfigurationElementCollection
{
    public Path this[int index]
    {
        get { return base.BaseGet(index) as Path; }
        set
        {
            if (base.BaseGet(index) != null)
            {
                base.BaseRemoveAt(index);
            }
            base.BaseAdd(index, value);
        }
    }

    protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement()
    {
        return new Path();
    }

    protected override object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element)
    {
        return ((Path)element).Name;
    }
}

public class Path : ConfigurationElement
{
    [ConfigurationProperty("name", IsRequired = true, IsKey = true)]
    public string Name
    {
        get { return (string)this["name"]; }
        set { this["name"] = value; }
    }

    [ConfigurationProperty("address", IsRequired = true)]
    public string Address
    {
        get { return (string)this["address"]; }
        set { this["address"] = value; }
    }
}

Answer 1

You could try this code (it should work).

public class PublicPaths : ConfigurationSection
{
    [ConfigurationProperty("", IsRequired = false, IsKey = false, IsDefaultCollection = true)]
    public PathCollection Items
    {
        get { return ((PathCollection)(base[""])); }
        set { base[""] = value; }
    } 
}

[ConfigurationCollection(typeof(Path), CollectionType = ConfigurationElementCollectionType.BasicMapAlternate)]
public class PathCollection : ConfigurationElementCollection
{
    internal const string ItemPropertyName = "add";

    public override ConfigurationElementCollectionType CollectionType
    {
        get { return ConfigurationElementCollectionType.BasicMapAlternate; }
    }

    protected override string ElementName
    {
        get { return ItemPropertyName; }
    }

    protected override bool IsElementName(string elementName)
    {
        return (elementName == ItemPropertyName);
    }

    protected override object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element)
    {
        return ((Path)element).Name;
    }

    protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement()
    {
        return new Path();
    }

    public override bool IsReadOnly()
    {
        return false;
    }

} 

public class Path : ConfigurationElement
{
    [ConfigurationProperty("name", IsRequired = true, IsKey = true)]
    public string Name
    {
        get { return (string)this["name"]; }
        set { this["name"] = value; }
    }

    [ConfigurationProperty("address", IsRequired = true)]
    public string Address
    {
        get { return (string)this["address"]; }
        set { this["address"] = value; }
    }
}

with this configuration

<configuration>
  <configSections>
        <section name="publicPaths" type="{type}, {namespace}" />
  </configSections> 
  <publicPaths>    
      <add name="ProductServices" address="/services/productservices.asmx" />
      <add name="LoginByToken" address="LoginByToken.ashx" />    
 </publicPaths>
</configuration>

You could then access the values through

    var config = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("publicPaths") as PublicPaths;

    foreach (Path s in config.Items)
    {
     //print   
    }