Question

Is Web.config’s appSettings section only capable of storing simple strings like this?

   <appSettings>
     <add key="OKPage" value="http://mysite.com/okpage.html" />
   </appSettings>

or I can have more complex values like CDATA or nested values? If not, is this the only place in Web.config where to store custom settings? Thanks

Answer 1

You can make any XmlSerializable class as a setting.

I answered to the similar question here: Custom type application settings in ASP.NET
Also there is a sample project attached.

Here is an example of the settings from my config file:

<setting name="MyEndPoints"
          serializeAs="Xml">
  <value>
    <ArrayOfEndPoint xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
                      xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
      <EndPoint>
        <HostName>10.40.10.9</HostName>
        <Port>22634</Port>
      </EndPoint>
      <EndPoint>
        <HostName>10.40.10.9</HostName>
        <Port>22635</Port>
      </EndPoint>
    </ArrayOfEndPoint>
  </value>
</setting>

Custom class for settings:

public class EndPoint
{
    public string HostName { get; set; }

    public int Port { get; set; }
}