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How to put application settings from app.config in an external file for windows app

I am using vb.net 2008 for a windows app. All the samples on this problem use web.config not app.config or it is done in another version of .net.

In my app.config I have the following:

<applicationSettings>
<FIOES.My.MySettings>
<setting name="MainImage" serializeAs="String">
<value>Default</value>
</setting>
</FIOES.My.MySettings>
</applicationSettings>

I need to put this in an external config file, but I am getting an error. Here is what I have done in the app.config. I substitute the above with :

<applicationSettings configSource="myappext.config"/>

and in myappext.config I have:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<applicationSettings>
<FIOES.My.MySettings>
<setting name="ImageOptions" serializeAs="String">
<setting name="MainImage" serializeAs="String">
<value>Default</value>
</setting>
</FIOES.My.MySettings>
</applicationSettings>

I put this in the same directory as the app.config and in the bin of the project but I receive an error that the app.config cannot be read.

NOTE: I have done this successfully for my connection strings and I am doing the same thing, but I guess it has to be different for application settings.

What do I need to do?

Thanks.

smhaig Tuesday, March 10, 2009 3:55 AM

After hours of working on this, I have the solution which I will list here:

How to create an external config file for application settings.

app.config

</sectionGroup>

</sectionGroup>

</configSections>

<FIOES.My.MySettings configSource="FioesAppSettings.config"/>

</applicationSettings>

...

External file -FioesAppSettings.config

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<FIOES.My.MySettings>
<setting name="ImageOptions" serializeAs="String">
<value>new_or_default</value>
</setting>
<setting name="MainImage" serializeAs="String">
<value>new</value>
</setting>
</FIOES.My.MySettings>

Marked As Answer bysmhaig Wednesday, March 11, 2009 1:44 AM

smhaig Wednesday, March 11, 2009 1:43 AM

I am wondering if I need to also make changes to the following:

<configuration>
<configSections>
<sectionGroup name="applicationSettings" type="System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsGroup, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" >
<section name="FIOES.My.MySettings" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"

requirePermission="false" />
</sectionGroup>
</configSections>

This is required in the app.config for the application and user settings and in this way is different from the connection string. However, I keep getting an error that the config file has failed to initialize.

smhaig Tuesday, March 10, 2009 6:42 PM

After hours of working on this, I have the solution which I will list here:

How to create an external config file for application settings.

app.config