Using configurationmanager to read from multiple web.config files

Question

Background:

I have some data thats stored in the web.config files of about 100 web applications. This data is getting moved to a database gradually. The webpages will show the web.config data until somebody clicks on an "edit" link in which case they'll be redirected to a webpage which will allow them to update this data where it will be saved in a database instead.

Problem:

Not all of the data will be changed on this page that will save it to the database. When somebody clicks the "edit" link I want the form to populate with the data from the web.config file and when they click "save" have it save to the database. However, using the configurationmanager I can only get it to pull data from the web.config file on current application.

Questions:

1. Is there a way to use configurationmanager to select the web.config file from lets say ../{dynamic_app_id}/web.config ?
2. is reading them as plain xml files my only option?
3. Are there any pitfalls to this approach?
4. Is there another solution that would work better perhaps?

Answer 1

You can read any config file with ease. Please see my sample code where I read application settings from external app.config file:

        System.Configuration.KeyValueConfigurationCollection settings;
        System.Configuration.Configuration config;

        System.Configuration.ExeConfigurationFileMap configFile = new System.Configuration.ExeConfigurationFileMap();
        configFile.ExeConfigFilename = "my_file.config";
        config = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(configFile, System.Configuration.ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
        settings = config.AppSettings.Settings;

Happy coding and best regards!