appSettings and ConfigurationManager.AppSettings issue

Question

I have searched the site, and while I found some very useful information, I couldn't figure out what is going on with my code. I have the following web.config:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
  <system.web>
  </system.web>

  <system.webServer>
  </system.webServer>

  <appSettings>
    <add key="APIKey" value="23e24c73feed7ca0f6afd876575842de"/>
    <add key="Secret" value="################################"/>
    <add key="Callback" value="http://localhost:55994/"/&gt;
    <add key="Suffix" value="My3Words"/>
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

I have snipped out the stuff in system.web and system.webServer, but it's the default settings generated in an ASP.NET MVC app.

I am trying to access the keys in the section (this is a simple Facebook application using FB Connect).

In my code, I have the following line:

return ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["APIKey"];

and it is returning a null. I can't quite figure out what is going on. I have the requisite:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Mvc.Ajax;
using System.Configuration;

at the top of my .cs file. I have a very strong suspicion the error exists post-keyboard (i.e. in my brain), but I can't solve this one. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Have you tried:

return ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("APIKey");

Answer 2

Check to make sure the Build Action of the web.config file is "None". I have seen this problem if the build action is "Embedded Resource".

Answer 3

Does your machine.config have the requisite AppSettings section. It should look something like (version numbers would be different):

<configuration>
   <configSections>
       <section name="appSettings"
          type="System.Configuration.NameValueFileSectionHandler, System,          Version=1.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
   </configSections>
</configuration>

Are you sure you're using the correct web.config? What does ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Settings look like?

Answer 4

Hi,

I bet u r using the right syntax to access them when you write: ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Key1"];

Try this format for the web config

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/.NetConfiguration/v2.0"&gt;
<appSettings>
 <add key="Key1" value="Val1"/>
 <add key="Key2" value="Val2"/>
</appSettings>
<connectionStrings>
 ......
 ......
</connectionStrings>
<system.web>
 <sessionState mode="InProc" timeout="20"/>
 <authorization>
  ......
 </authorization>

 <pages>
  <namespaces>
   <add namespace="System.Data"/>
   <add namespace="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
   <add namespace="System.IO"/>
  </namespaces>
 </pages>
 <customErrors mode="Off"/>
 <compilation debug="true"/></system.web>
</configuration>

Answer 5

Have you tried using the WebConfigurationManager:

return WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["APIKey"];

This is the preferred option for using config files in a web app - it handles things like nested config files, etc.

Answer 6

I hate getting faded by stupidity. The question about the machine.config led me to the right answer. I have no idea how it happened, but I had 2 web.config files in the project and I was editing one while the system was clearly reading the other. Doht!

Answer 7

Visual Studio creates 2 web.config files for MVC. 1 at the root, and the other in the Views folder.