An error occurred creating the configuration section handler

Question

I have a dot.NET 4.0 web application with a custom section defined:

<configuration>
    <configSections>
    <section name="registrations" type="System.Configuration.IgnoreSectionHandler, System.Configuration, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="true" restartOnExternalChanges="true" allowLocation="true"/>
    ....

at the end of the web.config file I have the respective section:

  ....
  <registrations>
    .....
  </registrations>
</configuration>

Every time I call System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.GetSection("registrations"); I get the following exception:

An error occurred creating the configuration section handler for registrations: The given assembly name or codebase was invalid. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131047) (C:\...\web.config line 13)

I'm also using Unity but don't know if that's in any way related to the error.

Have you faced this error before? How can I fix it? Do I need to replace the IgnoreSectionHandler with something else?

Answer 1

Given this app.config:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
    <configSections>
        <section name="registrations" type="MyApp.MyConfigurationSection, MyApp" />
    </configSections>
    <registrations myValue="Hello World" />
</configuration>

Then try using this:

namespace MyApp
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args) {
            var config = ConfigurationManager.GetSection(MyConfigurationSection.SectionName) as MyConfigurationSection ?? new MyConfigurationSection();

            Console.WriteLine(config.MyValue);

            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }

    public class MyConfigurationSection : ConfigurationSection
    {
        public const String SectionName = "registrations";

        [ConfigurationProperty("myValue")]
        public String MyValue {
            get { return (String)this["myValue"]; }
            set { this["myValue"] = value; }
        }

    }
}

Answer 2

You are missing the Namespace in the type attribute of your section in App.Config. Infact you dont need the full assembly info in there either. only the namespace is enough

Updated 1

  yourcustomconfigclass config =(yourcustomconfigclass)System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.GetSection(
    "registrations");

and in config file only write

   <section name="registrations" type="System.Configuration.IgnoreSectionHandler" requirePermission="true" restartOnExternalChanges="true" allowLocation="true"/>