SparkyTools.XmlConfig 1.0.1

see also:

• the rest of the "Sparky suite" of .NET utilities and test helpers

This package makes it easy to load a strongly-typed object (or IList of objects) from a custom web.config or app.config file section without having to write a custom IConfigurationSectionHandler implementation.

In the .config file, register each custom section with a type of "SparkyTools.XmlConfig.ConfigurationSectionDeserializer" or "SparkyTools.XmlConfig.ConfigurationSectionListDeserializer":

<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="Foo" type="SparkyTools.XmlConfig.ConfigurationSectionDeserializer, SparkyTools.XmlConfig" />
    <section name="FooList" type="SparkyTools.XmlConfig.ConfigurationSectionListDeserializer, SparkyTools.XmlConfig" />
  </configSections>

In each registered custom section, specify the object type via the type attribute. Here's an single instance section:

  <Foo type="FooNamespace.Foo, FooAssemblyName">
    <Bar>bar</Bar>
    <Baz>123.45</Baz>
  </Foo>

...and a "list" section: (the type is the instance type, not "IList..."):

  <FooList type="FooNamespace.Bar, FooAssemblyName">
      <Foo>
        <Bar>bar1</Bar>
        <Baz>111.11</Baz>
      </Foo>
      <Foo>
        <Bar>bar2</Bar>
        <Baz>222.22</Baz>
      </Foo>
  </FooList>

To read from your custom .config section, just call the Load method, specifying the object type and the .config section name:

    Foo foo = ConfigurationSectionDeserializer.Load<Foo>("Foo");
    IList<Foo> fooList = ConfigurationSectionListDeserializer.Load<Foo>("FooList");