.NET Type loadable from App.Config

Question

How do I design a type that loads it's properties from the App.Config file in the same way that SMTPClient class, or a TraceListener would? What standards should I follow when doing this?

Answer 1

Look into the ConfigurationSection class and the ConfigurationElement class

Here is a nice tutorial article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2tw134k3.aspx

and here is a snipped of the system.net configuration group from the machine.config

<sectionGroup name="system.net" type="System.Net.Configuration.NetSectionGroup, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089">
  <section name="authenticationModules" type="System.Net.Configuration.AuthenticationModulesSection, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
  <section name="connectionManagement" type="System.Net.Configuration.ConnectionManagementSection, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
  <section name="defaultProxy" type="System.Net.Configuration.DefaultProxySection, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
  <sectionGroup name="mailSettings" type="System.Net.Configuration.MailSettingsSectionGroup, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089">
    <section name="smtp" type="System.Net.Configuration.SmtpSection, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
  </sectionGroup>
  <section name="requestCaching" type="System.Net.Configuration.RequestCachingSection, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
  <section name="settings" type="System.Net.Configuration.SettingsSection, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
  <section name="webRequestModules" type="System.Net.Configuration.WebRequestModulesSection, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
</sectionGroup>