Using ConfigurationManager cannot read config

Question

I tried to use ConfigurationManager for the first time so thats what I did:

1.) created a new Project (TestProject) 2.) rightclick on TestProject -> Add -> New Item -> Application Configuration File (Name: Conf.config) 3.) I edited the file so its looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="key1" value="output1"/>
    <add key="key2" value="output2"/>
    <add key="key3" value="output3"/>
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

Now If I try to read the config my code is telling me that its empty :/

    NameValueCollection appSettings = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings;

    if (appSettings.Count == 0) //always true
        Console.WriteLine("something is wrong");

Even if I try ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["key1"] I dont get any output. Hm what am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

If you are doing testing, then try to mock your environment, instead of accessing configuration files, database, etc.

public interface IFooConfiguration
{
    public string Key1 { get; }
    public string Key2 { get; }
    public string Key3 { get; }
}

Implement this interface like this:

public class FooConfiguration
{
   public string Key1
   {
      get { return ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["key1"]; }
   }
}

But for your testing, use mocked configuration (I used Moq for example):

Mock<IFooConfiguration> mock = new Mock<IFooConfiguration>();
mock.Setup(foo => foo.Key1).Returns("output1");
var sut = new Sut(mock.Object);

BTW application configuration file should have name App.config.