Within an web.config
-file in an ASP.NET-application some sections of config, like appSettings
and connectionStrings
, supports the attributes file
and configSource
.
What is the difference between using the file
-attribute and the configSource
-attribute? When should you use which attribute and can you use both?
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings file="AppSettings.config">
</appSettings>
<connectionStrings configSource="ConnectionStrings.config">
</connectionStrings>
<!-- ... -->
</configuration>
file
attribute
appSettings
section.config
on a Configuration.Save call.configSource
attribute
appSettings
configSource
on a Configuration.Save call.System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException
is thrown if config source file does not exist.The file
attribute specifies an external file containing custom settings like you do in the appSettings entry of the web.config file.
Meanwhile, the external file specified in the configSource
attribute contains the settings for the section which you declare the configSource for. For example, if you use the configSource
attribute of the pages section, then the external file will contain the settings for the pages section.
The custom settings declared in the external config specified in the
file
attribute will be merged with the settings in theappSettings
section in theweb.config
file. In the meanwhile, theconfigSource
does not support merging, it means that you'll have to move the entire section settings into the external file.
http://www.codeproject.com/Messages/1463547/Re-difference-between-configSource-and-file-attrib.aspx