ConfigurationManager.GetSection doesn't return custom section

Question

Because my new project has a complex configuration structure I'm learning how to use class ConfigurationManager with Custom Configurations.

To do this, I used MSDN How to: Create Custom Configuration Sections Using ConfigurationSection as an example. This example shows a configuration section for a class that aggregates other configurable classes.

MyProblem: ConfigurationManager.GetSection does not return a section

I created a ConsoleApplication.

• Namespace: TryConfigManagement
• Add reference: System.Configuration

• Changed App.Config (copy always) as follows:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <configuration>
  
    <!-- Configuration section-handler declaration area.  -->
    <configSections>
      <sectionGroup name="pageAppearanceGroup">
        <section
          name="pageAppearance"
          type="TryConfigManagement.PageAppearance"
          allowLocation="true"
          allowDefinition="Everywhere"
          />
      </sectionGroup>
    </configSections>
  
    <!-- Configuration section settings area. -->
    <pageAppearanceGroup>
      <pageAppearance remoteOnly="true">
        <font name="TimeNewRoman" size="18"/>
        <color background="000000" foreground="FFFFFF"/>
      </pageAppearance>  
    </pageAppearanceGroup>
  
    <startup> 
      <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5.1"/>
    </startup>
  </configuration>
  

Note that I used a configuration group as in the example from MSDN.

My source code:

namespace TryConfigManagement
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string sectionName = "pageAppearanceGroup/pageAppearance";
            object section = ConfigurationManager.GetSection(sectionName);

This piece of code throws the following exception:

An error occurred creating the configuration section handler
for pageAppearanceGroup/pageAppearance:
Could not load type 'TryConfigManagement.PageAppearanceSection'
from assembly 'System.Configuration, Version=4.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a'.
(C:\...\bin\Debug\TryConfigManagement.vshost.exe.config line 6)

Although I did exactly what was in the example I figured out from StackOverflow that I should add the assembly information, probably like below:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
        string sectionName = "pageAppearanceGroup/pageAppearance ," +
            assembly.FullName;
        object section = ConfigurationManager.GetSection(sectionName);

Now the exception is not thrown anymore, but the returned value is null.

I think it has to do with the type in the section name of the config file. However trying different values like adding full assembly name didn't help.

Alas I can't find a lot of information about the string parameter in GetSection.

So what is wrong with my app.config, or with my GetSection call?

Answer 1

You can try to specify the assembly where TryConfigManagement.PageAppearance type is located in your config:

 <sectionGroup name="pageAppearanceGroup">
      <section
        name="pageAppearance"
        type="TryConfigManagement.PageAppearance, TryConfigManagement"
        allowLocation="true"
        allowDefinition="Everywhere"
        />
    </sectionGroup>

Then don't include the assembly name in GetSection parameter.

Also, remove the space after your section name.