Configuration Error on custom config section -- could not find the file specified?

Question

Hi --

This has worked fine locally for months and just broke on deployment to the server (discountasp). I'm developing with .net 3.5 and asp.net mvc. I've previously successfully hosted asp.net mvc applications on this same account (but without the config section).

I have a custom config section set up in my web.config file that's causing the following error on load:

Configuration Error

Description: An error occurred during the processing of a configuration file required to service this request. Please review the specific error details below and modify your configuration file appropriately. 

Parser Error Message: An error occurred creating the configuration section handler for SCConfig: The system cannot find the file specified.

Source Error: 

Line 179:  
Line 180:  <SCConfig>
Line 181:    <authentication>
Line 182:      <groups Administrators="Administrator" Auditors="Auditor" Auditor_Supervisors="Auditor Supervisor" Auditor_Externals="External Auditor" Biz_Users="Business User"/>

Source File: E:\web\irstagelert\htdocs\web.config    Line: 180 

Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.3074; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.3074

The part of the web.config where I define the config handler is:

<section name="SCConfig" type="com.lerteco.SoxCompliance.ConfigHandler.CustomTagHandler, com.lerteco.SoxCompliance.ConfigHandler"/>

I've played with a few different iterations of the type, but they all produce the same error message as above.

The top of the class file is:

namespace com.lerteco.SoxCompliance.ConfigHandler
{

    [Flags]
    public enum GroupCodes
    {
       ....
    }

    public class CustomTagHandler : IConfigurationSectionHandler
    {
        public object Create(object parent, object configContext, XmlNode section)
        {

And I've confirmed that on the host the /bin/ directory contains both the com.lerteco.SoxCompliance.ConfigHandler.dll and ....pdb files.

Thanks for any help, James

Answer 1

Jacob was right; it wasn't the handler file itself, but an error being generated from within the handler.

I ended up writing code and moving around return statements until I found the problem.

Specifically, I created an RSACrytpoServiceProvider() and got the error detailed in this posting http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1102884/rsacryptoserviceprovider-cryptographicexception-system-cannot-find-the-file-speci .

James