ConfigurationManager.AppSettings getting null?

Question

I did not realize that: 'have a web.config in a separate class library and' was reading the web.config app setting from different web application.

I am using VS2010 target framework 3.5

I don't know what is wrong here but I am getting null when I try to get ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["StoreId"];

private string _storeid = GetStoreId;  public static string GetStoreId {     get     {         return ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["StoreId"];     } } 

web.config:

<appSettings>     <add key="StoreId" value="123" /> </appSettings> 

Answer 1

If you are UNIT TESTING you need A COPY of the APP.CONFIG inside the UNIT TEST PROJECT

Answer 2

Problem

The usual cause for this is due to context.

Cause

When you have a solution with two projects, if the App/Web.Config is in the main project it wont work if the context of the running application is the second project such as a library, unit test, etc.

Conundrum

To read values from the config in other projects (with System.Configuration) you'll need to move/copy the config file to the project with the running context. Unfortunately duplicating files defeats the tenants of good programming; OOP, Source Code Management, SOLID, etc.

Cool Solution

A nifty solution is adding config file shortcuts in other projects so you only update one file:

It would be nice to divide the contents of config files across project's. Elegantly, like Sharing Assembly Files as per answer #2: https://stackoverflow.com/a/15319582/495455 but alas it's by context