How can i retrieve a connectionString from a web.config file?

Question

I am writing an client application in C# which will be supposed to change ConnectionString settings in a web.config file from another application I wrote. How can I achieve this goal?

Is there a way to load the web.config file in my application and read/change its data object orientated? Or do I need to parse it as if beeing a complete 'unknown' XML file?

Answer 1

If you're doing this from another application, you can use the VirtualDirectoryMapping class:

VirtualDirectoryMapping vdm = new VirtualDirectoryMapping(@"C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\YourApplication", true);
WebConfigurationFileMap wcfm = new WebConfigurationFileMap();
wcfm.VirtualDirectories.Add("/", vdm);


// Get the connectionString
Configuration config = WebConfigurationManager.OpenMappedWebConfiguration(wcfm, "/");
string connection = config.ConnectionStrings.ConnectionStrings["YourConnectionString"];

Answer 2

I would use RMI to query the other application for the ConnectionString.