WCF Client Configuration: how can I check if endpoint is in config file, and fallback to code if not?

Question

Looking to make a Client that sends serialized Message objects back to a server via WCF.

To make things easy for the end-developer (different departments) would be best

Answer 1

I would like to propose improved version of AlexDrenea solution, that uses only special types for configuration sections.

Configuration configuration = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
        ServiceModelSectionGroup serviceModelGroup = ServiceModelSectionGroup.GetSectionGroup(configuration);
        if (serviceModelGroup != null)
        {
            ClientSection clientSection = serviceModelGroup.Client;
            //make all your tests about the correcteness of the endpoints here

        }

Answer 2

here is the way to read the configuration file and load the data into an easy to manage object:

Configuration c = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
ConfigurationSectionGroup csg = c.GetSectionGroup("system.serviceModel");
if (csg != null)
{
    ConfigurationSection css = csg.Sections["client"];
    if (css != null && css is ClientSection)
    {
        ClientSection cs = (ClientSection)csg.Sections["client"];
        //make all your tests about the correcteness of the endpoints here
    }
}

The "cs" object will expose a collection named "endpoints" that allows you to access all the properties that you find in the config file.

Make sure you also treat the "else" branches of the "if"s and treat them as fail cases (configuration is invalid).