Custom Application Configuration

Custom Configuration

Create custom settings in the application settings as below;

    <configSections>

      <!--your other sectiongroups & sections -->

      <section name="viewTypeSettings" type="ConfigTest.ViewTypeSettings,ConfigTest" />        

    </configSections>

In order create custom settings in your application config file; create a class which derived from ConfigurationSection class as below

    public class ViewTypeSettings : ConfigurationSection

    {

        static ViewTypeSettings()

        {

            Settings = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("viewTypeSettings") as ViewTypeSettings;

        }

        public static ViewTypeSettings Settings { get; private set; }

        [ConfigurationProperty("viewTypes")]

        public ViewTypeCollection ViewTypes { get { return this["viewTypes"] as ViewTypeCollection; } }

    }

Now you can create custom elements as below

 <viewTypeSettings >

    <viewTypes>

      <viewType name="Phone" deviceIdentifiers="iPhone,iPod,Droid,Blackberry"></viewType>

      <viewType name="Tablet" deviceIdentifiers="iPad,Playbook,Transformer,Xoom"></viewType>

    </viewTypes>

  </viewTypeSettings>

In order to create custom elements, create a class which derived from ConfigurationElement Class   as below

    public class ViewType : ConfigurationElement

    {

        [ConfigurationProperty("name", IsRequired = true)]

        //[StringValidator(InvalidCharacters = "  ~!@#$%^&*()[]{}/;’\"|\\", MinLength = 1, MaxLength = 256)]

        [StringValidator(InvalidCharacters = " ~!@#$%^&*()[]{}/;’\"|\\", MinLength = 0, MaxLength = 256)]

        public string Name

        {

            get { return this["name"] as string; }

            set { this["name"] = value; }

        }

        [ConfigurationProperty("deviceIdentifiers", IsRequired = true)]

        [StringValidator(InvalidCharacters = " ~!@#$%^&*()[]{}/;’\"|\\", MinLength = 0, MaxLength = 256)]

        public string DeviceIdentifiers

        {

            get { return this["deviceIdentifiers"] as string; }

            set { this["deviceIdentifiers"] = value; }

        }

    }

 In order to create custom element array , create a class which derived from ConfigurationElementCollection   as below

    [ConfigurationCollection(typeof (ViewType), AddItemName = "viewType",

        CollectionType = ConfigurationElementCollectionType.BasicMap)]

    public class ViewTypeCollection : ConfigurationElementCollection, IEnumerable<ViewType> 

    {

        #region Constructors

        static ViewTypeCollection()

        {

            _properties = new ConfigurationPropertyCollection();

        }

        #endregion

        #region Fields

        private static readonly ConfigurationPropertyCollection _properties;

        #endregion

        #region Properties

        protected override ConfigurationPropertyCollection Properties

        {

            get { return _properties; }

        }

        public override ConfigurationElementCollectionType CollectionType

        {

            get { return ConfigurationElementCollectionType.AddRemoveClearMap; }

        }

        #endregion

        #region indexer

        public ViewType this[int index]

        {

            get { return (ViewType) BaseGet(index); }

            set

            {

                if (BaseGet(index) != null)

                {

                    BaseRemoveAt(index);

                }

                base.BaseAdd(index, value);

            }

        }

        public new ViewType this[string name]

        {

            get { return (ViewType) BaseGet(name); }

        }

        #endregion

        #region overriden methods

        protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement()

        {

            return new ViewType();

        }

        protected override object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element)

        {

            return (element as ViewType).Name;

        }

        public new IEnumerator<ViewType> GetEnumerator()

        {

            var baselsit = base.GetEnumerator();

            while (baselsit.MoveNext())

            {

                yield return baselsit.Current as ViewType;

            }

        }

        #endregion

    }