Most ASP.NET applications include a number of configuration settings, such as connection strings, mail server settings,
system-wide default settings, and so forth. While these settings could be hard-coded in the source code, it's usually a wiser
idea to place them in a configuration file, such as Web.config. The reasoning being that if these values
need to be modified, editing a configuration file is a lot easier than updating the code, rebuilding, and re-deploying.
In fact, Web.config provides an <appSettings> section intended to hold application-wide
configuration settings (see Specifying Configuration
Settings in Web.config for more details).
While <appSettings> work well for in-house applications, if you are building an application that will
be deployed by end users a more professional approach is to use a custom configuration section. <appSettings>,
for example, requires that all values be simple scalars provided through <add> elements.
With a custom configuration section, you can provide a more readable syntax. Moreover, custom configuration sections can
support properties that model a collection of settings.
In this article we'll examine how to use a custom configuration section technique that works in both ASP.NET 1.x and 2.0 applications.
A future article will explore .NET 2.0's new configuration classes and capabilities.
Read on to learn more!
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