Custom ASP.NET Configuration Section

Question

I want to create a custom configuration section to handle email notifications. The configuration needs to be in the following format:

<configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="notifications">
        <section name="notification" type="NotificationConfiguration" allowLocation="true" allowDefinition="Everywhere" />
    </sectionGroup>
</configSections>
...
<notifications>
    <notification name="..." enabled="..." delayInMinutes="...">
        <recipients>
            <add email="..." />
            <add email="..." />
            <add email="..." />
        </recipients>
    </notification>
    <notification name="..." enabled="..." delayInMinutes="...">
        <recipients>
            <add email="..." />
            <add email="..." />
            <add email="..." />
        </recipients>
    </notification>
</notifications>
...

I can get this to work fine using NotificationConfiguration config = (NotificationConfiguration) ConfigurationManager.GetSection("notifications\notification"), but this only caters for one <notification> element. How do I accomplish multiple elements to accommodate more than one notification?

The class that handles this is quite lengthy, so I won't paste it here, but it can be downloaded from here:

http://files.getdropbox.com/u/288235/NotificationConfiguration.cs

Thanks.

You can create a <NotificationsGroup /> outer element, and then put all your notification elements inside that group. This way, you'll be able to achieve what you want to achieve. — Kirtan
– Kirtan, Commented Jul 21, 2009 at 9:23

Kirtan · Accepted Answer · 2009-07-21 10:39:56Z

1

You can use the ConfigurationElementCollection Class.

A reference of how to use it can be found on CodeProject.

EDIT: You can create a <NotificationsGroup /> outer element, and then put all your notification elements inside that group. This way, you'll be able to achieve what you want to achieve.

EDIT 2:

<configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="NotificationsGroup">
        <section name="NotificationsGroup" type="NotificationGroupConfiguration" allowLocation="true" allowDefinition="Everywhere" />
    </sectionGroup>
</configSections>

<NotificationsGroup>
    <Notifications>
    </Notifications>
    ... Multiple notifications go here, instead of one.
    <Notifications>
    </Notifications>
</NotificationsGroup>

This means that NotificationsGroup will contain the element collection of Notifications.

edited Jul 21, 2009 at 10:39

answered Jul 21, 2009 at 9:11

Kirtan

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3 Comments

staterium Over a year ago

Hi Kirtan It is my understanding that ConfigurationElementCollection class is used for a collection of elements, not sections. I use that class for the <recipients> tag, but the <notification> tag is defined as a configuration section at the top of the web.config file, so how do I accomplish a collection of sections, as opposed to a collection of elements within a section?

staterium Over a year ago

At the top of the web.config, I define my custom configuration as follows: <configSections> <sectionGroup name="notifications"> <section name="notification" type="NotificationConfiguration" allowLocation="true" allowDefinition="Everywhere" /> </sectionGroup> </configSections> Do you mean a group of notifications, as in my <notifications> tag?

staterium Over a year ago

Thanks for your help Kirtran. The tool below eventually helped a lot too! codeplex.com/csd

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