How to store integer in config file but retrieve it as an enumeration?

Question

Hi,

I have a class that represents a configuration element:

public class ProductLevelConfigurationElement 
    : ConfigurationElement, IProductLevelConfiguration
{
    [ConfigurationProperty("level",IsKey = true, IsRequired = true)]
    public ProductLevel Level
    {
        get { return (ProductLevel)this["level"]; }
        set { this["level"] = value; }
    }
    [ConfigurationProperty("include")]
    public bool Include
    {
        get { return (bool)this["include"]; }
        set { this["include"] = value; }
    }
}

In web.config I want to configure it like:

<item level="1" include="true" />

But it doesn't work. If I put MainProduct in level attribute (one of the values of this enum) then it works perfect.

Any thoughts on how to solve this?

Answer 1

You can hack around it by changing your configuration property to type int, making it private and create a new property on your class.

[ConfigurationProperty("level", IsKey = true, IsRequired = true)]
private int LevelFromConfig
{
    get { return (int)this["level"]; }
    set { this["level"] = value; }
}

public ProductLevel Level
{
    get { return (ProductLevel)this.LevelFromConfig; }
}

The above code is provided as a simple example with no error checking of any kind.

Answer 2

I have found solution.

You can override DeserializeElement method

protected override void DeserializeElement(System.Xml.XmlReader reader, bool serializeCollectionKey)
{
 Level = (ProductLevel) int.Parse(reader.GetAttribute("level"));
}