Change in AppSettings needs restart my Application how can I avoid?

Question

I'm using C# .NET 2.0 Windows Application.

and I'm using app.config for my Application Settings.

but change in AppSettings doesn't reflected runtime, it Needs Application to be restarted.

How can I avoid it.

Here is my code snippet I used to read and write the Application Settings.

I'm reading the Setting like this

string temp = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get(key);

I'm updating the value like this where node is the current configuration/appSettings Node

node.Attributes["value"].Value = value;
xmlDoc.Save(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ConfigurationFile);

Answer 1

You could try calling

ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection("appSettings")

to refresh the AppSettings section of the file from disk. Once they have been refreshed, you should be able to read the new values.

I've just tested this and it does indeed work.

Answer 2

Dont use ConfigurationManager to read settings, instead use:

        System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ConfigurationFile).AppSettings.Settings["value"];

Answer 3

Alternatively, you could create a singleton 'Options' to hold on to your application settings and perform your read/writes for you. Once loaded, changing the .config doesn't require reloading, you simply set a property on the singleton and call your .Save() method.

The 'runtime' version of your settings is in the singleton, no need to read from disk.