How to edit application configuration settings? App.config best way to go?

Question

For my project I have settings that I added through the Settings in the project properties.

I quickly discovered that editing the app.config file directly seems to

Answer 1

I also tried to resolved this need and I have now a nice pretty ConsoleApplication, which i want to share: (App.config)

What you will see is:

1. How to read all AppSetting propery
2. How to insert a new property
3. How to delete a property
4. How to update a property

Have fun!

    public void UpdateProperty(string key, string value)
    {
        Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
        KeyValueConfigurationCollection appSettings = config.AppSettings.Settings;


        // update SaveBeforeExit
        config.AppSettings.Settings[key].Value = value;
        Console.Write("...Configuration updated: key "+key+", value: "+value+"...");

        //save the file
        config.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified);
        Console.Write("...saved Configuration...");
        //relaod the section you modified
        ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection(config.AppSettings.SectionInformation.Name);
        Console.Write("...Configuration Section refreshed...");
    }

    public void ReadAppSettingsProperty()
    {
        try
        {
            var section = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("applicationSettings");

            // Get the AppSettings section.
            NameValueCollection appSettings = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings;

            // Get the AppSettings section elements.
            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.WriteLine("Using AppSettings property.");
            Console.WriteLine("Application settings:");

            if (appSettings.Count == 0)
            {
            Console.WriteLine("[ReadAppSettings: {0}]", "AppSettings is empty Use GetSection command first.");
            }
            for (int i = 0; i < appSettings.Count; i++)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("#{0} Key: {1} Value: {2}",
                i, appSettings.GetKey(i), appSettings[i]);
            }
        }
        catch (ConfigurationErrorsException e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("[ReadAppSettings: {0}]", e.ToString());
        }

    }


    public void updateAppSettingProperty(string key, string value)
    {
        // Get the application configuration file.
        System.Configuration.Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
        string sectionName = "appSettings";


        config.AppSettings.Settings.Remove(key);
        config.AppSettings.Settings.Add(key, value);

        SaveConfigFile(config);
    }

    public void insertAppSettingProperty(string key, string value)
    {
        // Get the application configuration file.
        System.Configuration.Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
        string sectionName = "appSettings";

        config.AppSettings.Settings.Add(key, value);

        SaveConfigFile(config);
    }

    public void deleteAppSettingProperty(string key)
    {
        // Get the application configuration file.
        System.Configuration.Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
        config.AppSettings.Settings.Remove(key);

        SaveConfigFile(config);
    }

    private static void SaveConfigFile(System.Configuration.Configuration config)
    {
        string sectionName = "appSettings";

        // Save the configuration file.
        config.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified);

        // Force a reload of the changed section. This  
        // makes the new values available for reading.
        ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection(sectionName);

        // Get the AppSettings section.
        AppSettingsSection appSettingSection =
          (AppSettingsSection)config.GetSection(sectionName);

        Console.WriteLine();
        Console.WriteLine("Using GetSection(string).");
        Console.WriteLine("AppSettings section:");
        Console.WriteLine(appSettingSection.SectionInformation.GetRawXml());
    }    
}

Configuration File looks like as:

Well, so I didn't have any Problems with AppSettings with this Solution! Have fun... ;-) !