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Retrieve a custom configuration section

I want to make a library that will be used by either an exe (app.config) or a website (web.config). If I create a custom configuration section, and load it using
Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
CustomSection section = config.Sections.OfType<CustomSection>().FirstOrDefault();
it won't run on web site. It throws a exePath must be specified when not running inside a stand alone exe. exception, since it's not an exe. I can use something like:
CustomSection db = (CustomSection )ConfigurationSettings.GetConfig("CustomSection");
But that relies on the section being properly named. Is there a way to get all the sections and iterate through them?

write to a different programs app.config c#

I am needing to find away to write to another programs app.config file.
we have a 3rd party application that gets some values from an AppSettings section in its own config. but the only way we can get to change the value is when we call the application and once it runs it does a function which we don't want it to do if it doesn't have the correct values.
We need to encrypt one of the values so what we were think of was creating an application that would save the values in this 3rd party app.config.
saving the values and the encryption aren't a problem its doing it in another applications config file.
Is there a way to set which config file we use or a config path setting?
Regards
Aidan

Thank you for the help with this, I managed to get it done through this code.
string configLocation = string.Format("{0}\\APP.exe.config", Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location));
ExeConfigurationFileMap map = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
map.ExeConfigFilename = configLocation;
Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(map, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
txtEndpoint.Text = config.AppSettings.Settings["ENDPOINT"].Value;
This now allows me to write out the set config file values in the appsettings.
Cheers All.
Aidan

Not able to persist new changes in appsetting section in app.config WPF?

Below is the code i am using to update or change the values in appsetting in app.config
Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
config.AppSettings.Settings["userName"].Value = username;
config.AppSettings.Settings["pwd"].Value = pwd;
config.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified, true);
ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection("appSettings");
i am using above code to change or update the settings in appsetting section at runtime and want the changes to persist so that when i run the application it should pick the new values from appsettings but here it doesn't happen so the changes made and saved at run time do not persist when i relaunch my application again it has the old default settings. Also i checked app.config in bin/debug but it too had the old values in appsettings. i refered various blogs and post here too as a reference but it got the same code as above but it did not persist the settings.have referred this post

I had the same problem while ago. I would have preferred to put this in a comment but I don't have that privilege. My answer might not be your case but I think is worth to be shared.
May I ask you where your bin folder is located? Windows 7 when you programmatically alter a file that isn't in a user accessible space creates a copy of that file in a Roaming space and there the file will stay. Every time you try to access the file (like your app.config) W7 transparently redirect your readings/writings to this file, so there's a chance that you are modifying the file in the roaming space, leaving the one you are lookin unaltered.
Are the changes you are making still there the successive time you start the application?
Disclaimer/Apology: I'm not an experienced user so if I am saying silly things let me know and I will remove this comment.

See below(from MSDN) and remember app.config is in your project. .exe.config is the actual file name.
Client applications use a global configuration that applies to all users, separate configurations that apply to individual users, and configurations that apply to roaming users. The userLevel parameter determines the location of the configuration file being opened by indicating whether it has no user level (the configuration file is in the same directory as the application) or has a per-user level (the configuration file is in an application settings path determined by the user level).
Specify which configuration to get by passing one of the following values for userLevel:
To get the Configuration object that applies to all users, set userLevel to None.
To get the local Configuration object that applies to the current user, set userLevel to PerUserRoamingAndLocal.
To get the roaming Configuration object that applies to the current user, set userLevel to PerUserRoaming.
NoteNote
To get the Configuration object for a resource, your code must have read permissions on all the configuration files from which it inherits settings. To update a configuration file, your code must additionally have write permissions for both the configuration file and the directory in which it exists.

i got my solution of above problem, my goal was to persist changes done at run time at application or user level. Initially i tried using App.config where i kept default settings for application in appsettings section of app.config, but later after research i got to refer i got to know appsetting does not persist the changes, instead you can use userSettings section where under YourApplication.Property.Settings you can give your userlevel settings and it worked for me. To do this you do not need to go to App.config to do it manually, rather you can do it from the property window of project.
Right Click on your project -> Select Settings Tab on the left-> Now on the right hand side you will see the Resource section , give the ResourceName, Type, Scope and its value and you are done. The same value can be access and change dynamically from Code as well.
Below are Code Excerpt for the same --
Accessing Settings Value
enter code here
userName = Properties.Settings.Default.UserName;
pwd = Properties.Settings.Default.PWD;
Saving New Settings Back
enter code here
Properties.Settings.Default.UserName = userName.ToString();
Properties.Settings.Default.PWD = newPWD..ToString();
Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
And when you will launch your application next time you will get the new changed settings as your default settings.
I hope that helps
Thanks Guys
VJ

Saving custom config section results in System.UnauthorizedAccessException

I have the following problem trying to use a custom config section in my app.config. I use a custom config section to keep track of a selection of folders that I want to back up with my program like so:
<CustomConfigSection>
<BackupLocations>
<clear />
<add path="C:\Users\Marcel\Documents\" />
</BackupLocations>
</CustomConfigSection>
Now, whenever I save the configuration file I get this exception:
System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: An error occurred
loading a configuration file: Access to the path C: \ Program Files
(x86) \ Backup Solutions \ uqhuxi1j.tmp is denied.
(C: \ Program Files (x86) \ Backup Solutions \
BS.exe.Config) ---> System.UnauthorizedAccessException
The code I use is:
Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
CustomConfigSection section = (CustomConfigSection)config.GetSection("CustomConfigSection");
section.BackupLocations.Add(element);
section.SectionInformation.ForceSave = true;
config.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Full);
This works fine when logged in as admin and only occurs when there are multiple accounts configured on a PC, so this means it is a UAC/permissions problem. As a regular user I do not have the proper write permissions for that folder.
Now for my question(s):
How come the user settings get saved to AppData and the Custom config section is trying to save in the ApplicationFolder/exe.config? How can I make my custom section save to the AppData config file too?
I need to be able to save my data for every user, regardless of permissions. So can I achieve this using a custom config section or do I need a different approach? Preferably I would like to save my custom section into the AppData config file as well. I do not want to use tricks in my Installer to adjust permissions to my application folder to allow it to write. Most of all I do not want to require administrator permissions when starting up my program!
Thanks for your replies, much appreciated.

User-scoped settings get saved to AppData because users have permission to write there. Users don't have permission to write to Program Files. Use User-scoped settings in order to save them to AppData. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/a65txexh(v=vs.100).aspx for more details.

After a good nights sleep I seem to have stumbled upon the answer already myself.
The config is being saved in the AppData Directory for version and user specific data. What I was doing was actually directly opening the exe.config and not doing anything regarding user-scoped settings, let alone writing to the AppData config file for my program's current version. When I realised this, I knew what to look for on google.
I found these articles:
Windows Forms - Creating and Persisting Custom User Settings in C#
Windows Forms - Creating and Persisting Custom User Settings in C# - Part 2
Experimenting and downloading the source files of that project helped me out a lot and provided me exactly with what I need. So basicly I was implementing the wrong functions for what I wanted to do.
Thanks to the readers and thanks to the Mr. Ritchie for somewhat sending me into the right direction.

Why are application settings read-only in app.config?

I have some settings in my app.config which I intend to be 'global' - ie. any user can change them, and all users get the same setting.
But unless I change them to be user settings, they are read only.
Why is this?
And how should I go about persisting my app's global settings?
Edit:
This is actually a windows service application which runs as a service as LocalSystem. It can also be run manually by a local admin with argument "/config", which launches a windows form to edit configuration values.
So it will have write access to %PROGRAMFILES% in both situations.
The way I am accessing my settings is thusly:
Settings.Default.MySetting = MyNewValue;
And when MySetting is set to Application (in my project properties, Settings.settings), I get a compile-time error "MySetting is read only".
I am new to this stuff, and have not yet found a very good explanation of how it is supposed to be done. For example, why do I need to say 'Default', and what does that actually mean? I have no idea. If anyone can point me to an app.config usage tutorial, that would be really helpful.

The real complete answer:
The app.config settings are read-only because there are 2 types of settings:
Application Settings
User Settings
The first won't change unless the application publisher publishes a new version of it. The second is not stored in the app.config, but in a user.config file. In the abscence of this user.config file the app.config provides the default value.
If MySetting is a User Setting:
Settings.Default.MySetting = MyNewValue;
Settings.Default.Save();
It will create a user.config file at [User Local Settings Application Data]\[company name]\[application].exe[hash string]\[version] with the new settings, and those settings will prevail over the settings in the app.config file.

Why: Application settings are intended to be stored in the Application folder under Program Files where the user does not have write privileges.
How: There is no default support for "All Users" but you should be able to setup your own custom config file in a public folder or use a Database.

Simply put: There's no location on a machine that everyone can change, unless you give privileges to do so.
There are several ways to deal with this kind of situation:
You can create a configuration file / some registry settings, put this in the "all users" profile and grant "Everyone" the rights to change that specific file. During installation you can automate the procedure for granting the appropiate privileges and your program can handle the rest.
You can leverage UAC to make sure the current user has the appropiate privileges to change a system-wide setting. This is the recommended approach but also means that not everyone can change specific settings.
You can use a shared database and store your settings in there.
???
I would not recommend to change items in the program files directory or changing the default privileges overthere.
EDIT: As local system you have indeed write privileges to the program files directory. If you get the "Read only" error, it means the settings itself are read only. You'll need to use the configuration manager to be able to change the settings in configuration files.
Hope this helps.

One reason is that the app.config file is in your app's folder under the Program Files directory, and everything in Program Files is read only for standard users by default.
Another is that app.config settings apply system wide. If one user makes a change it will impact other users. Normal users are not supposed to be able to make that kind of change. Anything that can impact multiple users should only be set by a system administrator. Per-user settings belong in each user's Application Data folder.

Not quite sure what you mean here.
Do you mean you allowed users to alter app.config from the UI and the changes are not persisted?
did you call
ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection("appSettings");
and
Configuration.Save();

Configuration Settings are cached in the memory when you starts the application. you can deal with the app.config file as xml to change the values.

I'm using this code (a static method) to change the default settings:
public static bool SetGlobalSetting(string settingName, string settingValue)
{
try
{
XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument();
xml.Load(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ConfigurationFile);
XmlNode xmlNode = xml.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("descendant::setting[#name='" + settingName + "']");
xmlNode.SelectSingleNode("value").InnerText = settingValue;
xml.Save(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ConfigurationFile);
Settings s = new Settings();
s.Reload();
return true;
} catch (Exception e)
{
// process the exception as you need
}
return false;
}
}