Read separate web.config file outside the application folder

Question

I need to read web.config file, outside the application's folder (located in any other directory). I tried this code:

string filePath = @"C:\Users\Idrees\Downloads\New folder\Web.config";
Configuration c1 = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(filePath);
var value1 = c1.AppSettings.Settings["Key1"].Value;

But it is giving me the error:

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Because here, c1.AppSettings is an object, but c1.AppSettings.Settings contains not items (hence 0 Count). It is not really loading the AppSettings keys. When trying to read any Key from Settings collection, it gives this error.

Is there any way how to load AppSettings keys from a web.config file outside the application folder.

If I put same file within application folder, then it reads the keys successfully.

This is my sample config file's content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--             
  For more information on how to configure your ASP.NET application, please visit 
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169433    
  -->
<configuration>        
  <connectionStrings>        
    <!--here goes my connection strings-->
  </connectionStrings>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="Key1" value="Value1" />
    <add key="Key2" value="Value2" />
    <add key="Key3" value="Value3" />
  </appSettings>

</configuration>

I have a web application already running on my server. And I need to develop a small utility which has to do some job in database, and I don't want to write db credentials or connection string(and some other additional app-settings) in each application, I want it to read same thing from web.config.

Answer 1

You can using ConfigurationManager to read arbitrary configuration files by opening a mapped exe configuration as follows:

var filePath = @"C:\Users\Idrees\Downloads\New folder\Web.config";
var fileMap = new ExeConfigurationFileMap { ExeConfigFilename = filePath };
var configuration = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(fileMap, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
var value = configuration.AppSettings.Settings["Key1"].Value;