How to search custom config section by key

Question

i have custom config section like

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <configSections>
        <section name="DBConfiguration" type="NewSQLExecuter.DBConfigurationSection, NewSQLExecuter"/>
    </configSections>

    <DBConfiguration>
        <Items>
            <add servername="192.168.50.2\db1" dbname="test1" userid="sa" password="2222m@n" countrycode="GB" />
            <add servername="192.168.60.2\db2" dbname="test2" userid="sa" password="22222n" countrycode="US" />
            <add servername="192.168.70.2\db3" dbname="test3" userid="sa" password="3333" countrycode="DE" />
        </Items>
    </DBConfiguration>

</configuration>

i have written a class which read data from custom config section...the class code as follows.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Configuration;

namespace NewSQLExecuter
{

    public class DBConfigurationSection : ConfigurationSection
    {
        [ConfigurationProperty("Items")]
        public ItemsCollection Items
        {
            get { return ((ItemsCollection)(base["Items"])); }
        }
    }

    [ConfigurationCollection(typeof(ItemsElement))]
    public class ItemsCollection : ConfigurationElementCollection
    {
        protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement()
        {
            return new ItemsElement();
        }

        protected override object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element)
        {
            return ((ItemsElement)(element)).CountryCode;
        }

        public ItemsElement this[int idx]
        {
            get
            {
                return (ItemsElement)BaseGet(idx);
            }
        }
    }

    public class ItemsElement : ConfigurationElement
    {
        [ConfigurationProperty("servername", DefaultValue = "", IsKey = false, IsRequired = false)]
        public string ServerName
        {
            get
            {
                return ((string)(base["servername"]));
            }
            set
            {
                base["servername"] = value;
            }
        }

        [ConfigurationProperty("dbname", DefaultValue = "", IsKey = false, IsRequired = false)]
        public string DBName
        {
            get
            {
                return ((string)(base["dbname"]));
            }
            set
            {
                base["dbname"] = value;
            }
        }

        [ConfigurationProperty("userid", DefaultValue = "", IsKey = false, IsRequired = false)]
        public string UserID
        {
            get
            {
                return ((string)(base["userid"]));
            }
            set
            {
                base["userid"] = value;
            }
        }

        [ConfigurationProperty("password", DefaultValue = "", IsKey = false, IsRequired = false)]
        public string Password
        {
            get
            {
                return ((string)(base["password"]));
            }
            set
            {
                base["password"] = value;
            }
        }

        [ConfigurationProperty("countrycode", DefaultValue = "", IsKey = true, IsRequired = true)]
        public string CountryCode
        {
            get
            {
                return ((string)(base["countrycode"]));
            }
            set
            {
                base["countrycode"] = value;
            }
        }
    }
}

this way i iterate the custom config data and get the value

DBConfigurationSection section = (DBConfigurationSection)ConfigurationManager.GetSection("DBConfiguration");

if (section != null)
{
    DateTime satrt = DateTime.Now;

    for (int i = 0; i <= section.Items.Count - 1; i++)
    {
        var country = section.Items[i].CountryCode; ;
        var constring = string.Format("{0}{1}{2}{3}", "UID=" + section.Items[i].UserID, ";PWD=" + section.Items[i].Password, 
                                    ";Server=" + section.Items[i].ServerName, ";Database=" + section.Items[i].DBName); 
        dicList.Add(country, constring);
    }
}

the code works fine but i want to add one more feature like search any config data by any key value like

if(section.key.userid=="joy")
{
    string pwd=section.key.password
}

So guide me how could add search functionality into my class. it would be nice if i could use LINQ to search for any custom config data. so please guide me thanks.

Getting error to handle two custom config section in app.config file

my app.config file look like

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <configSections>
        <section name="DBConfiguration" type="CSRAssistant.DBConfigurationSection, CSRAssistant"/>
        <section name="LoginConfiguration" type="CSRAssistant.LoginConfigurationSection, CSRAssistant"/>
    </configSections>

    <DBConfiguration>
        <add servername="dbname" dbname="BBAJobBoardForGB" userid="sa" password="222" countrycode="GBR" />
        <add servername="db2" dbname="BBAJobBoardForUS" userid="sa" password="swww" countrycode="USA" />

    </DBConfiguration>

    <LoginConfiguration>
        <add UserName="ww" Pwd="ww" Country="GBR"/>
        <add UserName="ss" Pwd="ss"  Country="USA"/>
        <add UserName="dd" Pwd="dd"  Country="CAD"/>
    </LoginConfiguration>
    <appSettings>
        <add key="MailID" value="[email protected]" />
    </appSettings>

    <startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy="true">
        <supportedRuntime version="v4.0"/>
        <requiredRuntime version="v4.0.20506"/>
    </startup>

</configuration>

to handle two section my code follows as

namespace CSRAssistant
{

    public class DBConfigurationSection : ConfigurationSection
    {
        //[ConfigurationProperty("Items")]
        //public ItemsCollection Items
        //{
        //    get { return ((ItemsCollection)(base["Items"])); }
        //}

        [ConfigurationProperty("", IsDefaultCollection = true)]
        public ItemsCollection Items 
        { 
            get 
            { 
                return ((ItemsCollection)(base[""])); 
            } 
        }
    }

    [ConfigurationCollection(typeof(ItemsElement))]
    public class ItemsCollection : ConfigurationElementCollection
    {
        protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement()
        {
            return new ItemsElement();
        }

        protected override object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element)
        {
            return ((ItemsElement)(element)).CountryCode;
        }

        public ItemsElement this[int idx]
        {
            get
            {
                return (ItemsElement)BaseGet(idx);
            }
        }
    }

    public class ItemsElement : ConfigurationElement
    {
        [ConfigurationProperty("servername", DefaultValue = "", IsKey = false, IsRequired = false)]
        public string ServerName
        {
            get
            {
                return ((string)(base["servername"]));
            }
            set
            {
                base["servername"] = value;
            }
        }

        [ConfigurationProperty("dbname", DefaultValue = "", IsKey = false, IsRequired = false)]
        public string DBName
        {
            get
            {
                return ((string)(base["dbname"]));
            }
            set
            {
                base["dbname"] = value;
            }
        }

        [ConfigurationProperty("userid", DefaultValue = "", IsKey = false, IsRequired = false)]
        public string UserID
        {
            get
            {
                return ((string)(base["userid"]));
            }
            set
            {
                base["userid"] = value;
            }
        }

        [ConfigurationProperty("password", DefaultValue = "", IsKey = false, IsRequired = false)]
        public string Password
        {
            get
            {
                return ((string)(base["password"]));
            }
            set
            {
                base["password"] = value;
            }
        }

        [ConfigurationProperty("countrycode", DefaultValue = "", IsKey = true, IsRequired = true)]
        public string CountryCode
        {
            get
            {
                return ((string)(base["countrycode"]));
            }
            set
            {
                base["countrycode"] = value;
            }
        }
    }

    public class LoginConfigurationSection : ConfigurationSection
    {
        //[ConfigurationProperty("Items")]
        //public ItemsCollection Items
        //{
        //    get { return ((ItemsCollection)(base["Items"])); }
        //}

        [ConfigurationProperty("", IsDefaultCollection = true)]
        public ItemsCollection Items
        {
            get
            {
                return ((ItemsCollection)(base[""]));
            }
        }
    }


    public class LoginElement : ConfigurationElement
    {
        [ConfigurationProperty("UserName", DefaultValue = "", IsKey = false, IsRequired = false)]
        public string UserName
        {
            get
            {
                return ((string)(base["UserName"]));
            }
            set
            {
                base["UserName"] = value;
            }
        }

        [ConfigurationProperty("Pwd", DefaultValue = "", IsKey = false, IsRequired = false)]
        public string Pwd
        {
            get
            {
                return ((string)(base["Pwd"]));
            }
            set
            {
                base["Pwd"] = value;
            }
        }

        [ConfigurationProperty("Country", DefaultValue = "", IsKey = false, IsRequired = false)]
        public string Country
        {
            get
            {
                return ((string)(base["Country"]));
            }
            set
            {
                base["Country"] = value;
            }
        }

    }
}

read the two custom config setting like this way

string joyPassword = "";
            LoginConfigurationSection LoginConfigurationSection = (LoginConfigurationSection)ConfigurationManager.GetSection("LoginConfiguration");
            if (LoginConfigurationSection != null)
            {
                var UserCredentials = LoginConfigurationSection.Items
                                    .Cast<LoginElement>()
                                    .FirstOrDefault(_element => _element.UserName == "razi");

                if (UserCredentials != null)
                    joyPassword = UserCredentials.Country;



                DBConfigurationSection section = (DBConfigurationSection)ConfigurationManager.GetSection("DBConfiguration");
                if (section != null)
                {
                    var DbConnection = section.Items
                                        .Cast<ItemsElement>()
                                        .FirstOrDefault(_element => _element.CountryCode.ToUpper() == joyPassword.ToUpper());

                    if (DbConnection != null)
                        joyPassword = DbConnection.ServerName;
                }
            }

now i am getting error like at runtime Unrecognized attribute 'UserName'. Note that attribute names are case-sensitive.

why Unrecognized attribute 'UserName' just do not understand....if possible please guide me. thanks

I know this is not the kind of answer you are looking for but why don't you just read the config file as an xml? I mean it's so much easier to do that and using XDocument you can find anything and everything. — Alex
@Alex I disagree with this. I think the custom configuration system is much more friendly and easier to use than loading random xml files. The fact that it is integrated in the app/web.config workflow and that it can be loaded in a stardard way and still be contained in an external file via configSource is a killer feature. In my opinion, his example is a pretty good fit for a custom section and I would go exactly that way too. — julealgon
Given the question, in my opinion, the OP is dying for some LINQ functionality. Hence loading everything into an XDoc and then just getting children with foo = 'bar' seems like a sweet deal. Again this is just an opinion, I agree with you as far as workflow is concerned. It's the searching part that sucks in custom configs. — Alex
@Alex I believe it wouldn't be too much different than what I proposed to search the items with linq. Notice that since the item collection is still an IEnumerable you can use linq on it with relative ease. Even if you went the pure XML route, I would still advise to use a typed model and deserialize the xml into it. It would end up being pretty similar to the config section anyway, with the added con of being disconnected from the default workflow like I said before. I agree though that config sections are not always the answer, for instance if you already have the xml and models. — julealgon
IF one used a model :) ... which I rarely do for this sort of thing. Hence the added hassle of the config class makes it a far more cumbersome solution. But you are right, in the long term config class is the best way to go. For non-lazy devs that is. — Alex

julealgon julealgon · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-05T14:04:31

You could probably just do something like this:

var joyUserElement = section.Items
    .Cast<ItemsElement>()
    .FirstOrDefault(_element => _element.UserID == "joy");

if (joyUserElement != null)
    string joyPassword = joyUserElement.Password;

Does this make sense to you? I may be missing something here since this was not tested, but it should work fine.

I see you are using a normal for instead of foreach there too. Remember that the collection is IEnumerable, so you can just use a foreach with explicit typing, like this:

foreach(ItemElement element in section.Items)

Two more points I would like to add to this:

I would suggest you rename your element class to reflect what it actually is, for instance DbConfigurationElement instead of ItemElement. This will make the code a bit more clear in the long run.
You can 'hide' the <Items> tag in the xml there if it has no special meaning (which seems to be the case). If you annotate your collection property like this

.

[ConfigurationProperty("", IsDefaultCollection = true)]
public ItemsCollection Items
{
    get { return ((ItemsCollection)(base[""])); }
}

You can then write your section like this:

<DBConfiguration>
    <add servername="192.168.50.2\db1" dbname="test1" userid="sa" password="2222m@n" countrycode="GB" />
    <add servername="192.168.60.2\db2" dbname="test2" userid="sa" password="22222n" countrycode="US" />
    <add servername="192.168.70.2\db3" dbname="test3" userid="sa" password="3333" countrycode="DE" />
</DBConfiguration>

This is very useful for small, single collection config sections like yours.

How to search custom config section by key

Getting error to handle two custom config section in app.config file

to handle two section my code follows as

read the two custom config setting like this way

2 Answers

calling way