Question

I want to use a custom path for a user.config file, rather than have .NET read it from the default location.

I am opening the file like this:

ExeConfigurationFileMap configMap = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
configMap.ExeConfigFilename = String.Format("{0}\\user.config",AppDataPath);
Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(configMap, ConfigurationUserLevel.PerUserRoamingAndLocal);

But I can’t figure out how to actually read settings out of it, I get a compile error saying that the values are inaccessible when I try to get a value through AppData or ConfigurationSection.

Do I need to create some sort of a wrapper class to consume the data properly?

Answer 1

I was recently tasked with a similar problem, I had to change the location of where settings files were read from the default location in AppData to the Application directory. My solution was to create my own settings files that derived from ApplicationSettingsBase which specified a custom SettingsProvider. While the solution felt like overkill at first, I’ve found it to be more flexible and maintainable than I had anticipated.

Update:

Sample Settings File:

public class BaseSettings : ApplicationSettingsBase
{
    protected BaseSettings(string settingsKey)
       { SettingsKey = settingsKey.ToLower(); }


    public override void Upgrade()
    {
         if (!UpgradeRequired)
             return;
         base.Upgrade();
         UpgradeRequired = false;
         Save();
    }


    [SettingsProvider(typeof(MySettingsProvider)), UserScopedSetting]
    [DefaultSettingValue("True")]
    public bool UpgradeRequired
    {
         get { return (bool)this["UpgradeRequired"]; }
         set { this["UpgradeRequired"] = value; }
    }
}

Sample SettingsProvider:

public sealed class MySettingsProvider : SettingsProvider
{
    public override string ApplicationName { get { return Application.ProductName; } set { } }
    public override string Name { get { return "MySettingsProvider"; } }


    public override void Initialize(string name, NameValueCollection col)
         { base.Initialize(ApplicationName, col); }


    public override void SetPropertyValues(SettingsContext context, SettingsPropertyValueCollection propertyValues)
    {
       // Use an XmlWriter to write settings to file. Iterate PropertyValueCollection and use the SerializedValue member
    }


    public override SettingsPropertyValueCollection GetPropertyValues(SettingsContext context, SettingsPropertyCollection props)
    {
       // Read values from settings file into a PropertyValuesCollection and return it
    }


    static MySettingsProvider()
    {
        appSettingsPath_ = Path.Combine(new FileInfo(Application.ExecutablePath).DirectoryName, settingsFileName_);

        settingsXml_ = new XmlDocument();
        try { settingsXml_.Load(appSettingsPath_); }
        catch (XmlException) { CreateXmlFile_(settingsXml_); } //Invalid settings file
        catch (FileNotFoundException) { CreateXmlFile_(settingsXml_); } // Missing settings file
    }
}