Read custom configuration file in C# (Framework 4.0)

I am developing an application in C# under Framework 4.0.

In my application I would like to create separate configuration file that is not the app.config file. The configuration file contains custom configuration sections we developed for the product.

I don't want to reference this file from the app.config using the configSource.

I want to load it at runtime and read it's content.

An example to what I mean is the log4net that allow you to write the configuration in the log4net.config file.

Can anyone help how to do that without writing code that mimcs the code that exists in the framework ?

UPDATE:

based on the answer from Kaido I wrote utility class that reads custom configuration file and has the ability to refresh the Config content when the file on the file system changes.

The usage in this class is as follows:

Get the configuration file content

// Create configuration reader that reads the files once
var configFileReader = new CustomConfigurationFileReader("c:\\myconfig.config");
var config = configFileReader.Config;

// Do any action you want with the config object like:
config.GetSection("my.custom.section");

// or,
var someVal = config.AppSettings.Settings["someKey"];

Get notifications when the configuration file changes

// Create configuration reader that notifies when the configuraiton file changes
var configFileReader = new CustomConfigurationFileReader("c:\\myconfig.config", true);

// Register to the FileChanged event
configFileReader.FileChanged += MyEventHandler;

...

private void MyEventHanler(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
     // You can safely access the Config property here, it is already contains the new content
}

In the code I used PostSharp in order to validate the constructor input parameter to verify that the log file is not null and that

c# configuration configuration-files

Edit Report

You can try Cinchoo framework for your needs. It simplifies development work by code first approach. Define a class as below,

namespace HelloWorld
{
    #region NameSpaces

    using System;
    using Cinchoo.Core.Configuration;

    #endregion NameSpaces

    [ChoConfigurationSection("sample")]
    public class SampleConfigSection : ChoConfigurableObject
    {
        #region Instance Data Members (Public)

        [ChoPropertyInfo("name", DefaultValue="Mark")]
        public string Name;

        [ChoPropertyInfo("message", DefaultValue="Hello World!")]
        public string Message;

        #endregion
    }

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        SampleConfigSection sampleConfigSection = new SampleConfigSection();
        Console.WriteLine(sampleConfigSection.ToString());
    }

}

First time, when you run the application it will creates the configuration section in [appexename].xml file as below. Then onward any changes made to this file will be picked up automatically

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="sample" type="Cinchoo.Core.Configuration.ChoNameValueSectionHandler, Cinchoo.Core, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b7dacd80ff3e33de" />
  </configSections>
  <sample>
    <add key="name" value="Mark" />
    <add key="message" value="Hello World!" />
  </sample>
</configuration>

answered 2012-03-20T03:09:35.653

Read custom configuration file in C# (Framework 4.0)

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