App Settings not showing up after loading a app.config file with configuration manager

Question

Ok, I have a config file that looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <configSections>
        <sectionGroup name="applicationSettings" type="System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsGroup, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" >
            <section name="MDCHartfordMVVM.Properties.Settings" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="false" />
        </sectionGroup>
    </configSections>
    <connectionStrings>
        <add name="MDCHartfordMVVM.Properties.Settings.DBConnection"
            connectionString="Data Source=.\sqlexpress;Initial Catalog=TPS;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=sa;Password=service#123"
            providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
    </connectionStrings>
    <startup> 
        <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5.2" />
    </startup>
    <applicationSettings>
        <MDCHartfordMVVM.Properties.Settings>
            <setting name="OPCServer" serializeAs="String">
                <value>Kepware.KepserverEX.v5</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="OPCGroup" serializeAs="String">
                <value>Group1</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="OPCUpdateRate" serializeAs="String">
                <value>5000</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="OPCDeadband" serializeAs="String">
                <value>0</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="HeartBeat" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.HeartBeat</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TLICNumber" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TLICNumber</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckIDNumber" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TruckIDNumber</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckCompany" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TruckCompany</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckWidth" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TruckWidth</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckLength" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TruckLength</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckDepth" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TruckDepth</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckVolume" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TruckVolume</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckTare" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TruckTare</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckMaxGross" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TruckMaxGross</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckType" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TruckType</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Mt_Pos1_Lev1" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Mt_Pos1_Lev1</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Mt_Pos1_Lev2" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Mt_Pos1_Lev2</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Mt_Pos1_Lev3" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Mt_Pos1_Lev3</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Mt_Pos2_Lev1" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Mt_Pos2_Lev1</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Mt_Pos2_Lev2" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Mt_Pos2_Lev2</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Mt_Pos2_Lev3" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Mt_Pos2_Lev3</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Mt_Pos3_Lev1" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Mt_Pos3_Lev1</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Mt_Pos3_Lev2" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Mt_Pos3_Lev2</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Mt_Pos3_Lev3" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Mt_Pos3_Lev3</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Fl_Pos1_Lev1" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Fl_Pos1_Lev1</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Fl_Pos1_Lev2" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Fl_Pos1_Lev2</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Fl_Pos1_Lev3" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Fl_Pos1_Lev3</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Fl_Pos2_Lev1" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Fl_Pos2_Lev1</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Fl_Pos2_Lev2" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Fl_Pos2_Lev2</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Fl_Pos2_Lev3" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Fl_Pos2_Lev3</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Fl_Pos3_Lev1" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Fl_Pos3_Lev1</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Fl_Pos3_Lev2" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Fl_Pos3_Lev2</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Fl_Pos3_Lev3" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Fl_Pos3_Lev3</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckLoadPermissive" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TrkLoadPermissive</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckPositionTarget" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TrkPositionTarget</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckLoadPermissivePlcAsh" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TrkLoadPermissivePlcAsh</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="LoadComplete_PlcAsh" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.LoadComplete_PlcAsh</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckPresent" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TrkPresent</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckLoading" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TruckLoading</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="TruckAmountLoaded" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.TrkAmountLoaded</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="PEPos1_1" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.PEPos1_1</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="PEPos2_1" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.PEPos2_1</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="PEPos3_1" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.PEPos3_1</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Cur_Chute1_Lev" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Cur_Chute1_Lev</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Cur_Chute2_Lev" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Cur_Chute2_Lev</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="Cur_Chute3_Lev" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.Cur_Chute3_Lev</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="PEPos1_2" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.PEPos1_2</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="PEPos2_2" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.PEPos2_2</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="PEPos3_2" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.PEPos3_2</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="ExitDoor" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.ExitDoor</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="EntryDoor" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.EntryDoor</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="PEExitDoor" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.PEExitDoor</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="PEEntryDoor" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.PEEntryDoor</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="PEShortTruck" serializeAs="String">
                <value>TPS.KSS.PEShortTruck</value>
            </setting>
        </MDCHartfordMVVM.Properties.Settings>
    </applicationSettings>
</configuration>

I want to create another application that can load and modify this file. I open the file by using:

config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(filepath);

where config is a Configuration object and filepath is the filepath to the configuration file I wish to modify.

This seems to work, however if I set a breakpoint and look at the code after config has been assigned to there are no settings in the appSettings section.

Anyone have any idea why this is so?

Please take a look at [this](http://stackoverflow.com/a/486663/2107576) reply and related links from marc_s. — Dbuggy, Jan 20 '16 at 16:00

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 20 '16 at 16:41

I took your config file and wrote it to my temp folder as test.config. You can change the settings you want using the following:

var config = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(new ExeConfigurationFileMap() { ExeConfigFilename = @"c:\temp\test.config" }, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
var clientSettingsSection = (ClientSettingsSection)config.GetSection("applicationSettings/MDCHartfordMVVM.Properties.Settings");

clientSettingsSection.Settings.Get("EntryDoor").Value.ValueXml.ChildNodes[0].Value = "NewValue";

config.SaveAs(@"c:\\temp\\configuration.config",ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified, true);

There are some points of interest. I used OpenMappedExeConfiguration to get the section using "applicationSettings/MDCHartfordMVVM.Properties.Settings". This will get a ClientSettingsSection in your case. Using this ClientSettingsSection we have access to the settings defined in the list.

We can change a setting by changing the underlying xml. I'm sure there is another way of doing this but i didn't care to look into it further.

lastly i save the settings using ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified and true arguments. This way i could see the changed value within the new config file.

But some default empty elements are added using this as well. Perhaps someone knows another way of doing it. This is what i could figure out.

Sweet, thanks a bunch. I will check it out and get back with you. — ProgrammingDude, Jan 20 '16 at 16:45
This seems to be working...I can at least see the setting names this way...thanks a bunch man. — ProgrammingDude, Jan 20 '16 at 16:53

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 20 '16 at 15:09

0

That's correct behaviour since you don't have an appSettings section in your config. You do have an ApplicationSettings section. It'll work if you correct the typo.

answered Jan 20 '16 at 15:09

Hintham

1,078
10
29

I changed the and tags to and as well as and . This didn't change anything. – ProgrammingDude Jan 20 '16 at 15:18
You should also change the entry to be of the form '. – Hintham Jan 20 '16 at 15:20

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 20 '16 at 15:37

0

Your appSettings section in the config file should look like

<appSettings>
    <add key="Setting1" value="some value"/>
    <add key="Setting2" value="some other value"/>
</appSettings>

The 'filepath' variable should be the path of the .exe, not the config file itself.

answered Jan 20 '16 at 15:37

cgt_mky

196
1
2
7

1

although still usefull, `appSettings` is pre .NET2.0 whilst what OP uses is the newer >.NET 2.0 `ApplicationSettingsGroup`. See [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2350893/appsettings-vs-applicationsettings-appsettings-outdated](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2350893/appsettings-vs-applicationsettings-appsettings-outdated) for more info on this. – Dbuggy Jan 20 '16 at 15:52
@Dbuggy are these still editable by using the configuration class? – ProgrammingDude Jan 20 '16 at 15:59

App Settings not showing up after loading a app.config file with configuration manager

3 Answers3