Nesting multiple ConfigurationElement types in a ConfigurationElementCollection

Today I stumbled upon an unpleasant problem with .NET configuration. I’d like to have a configuration file that looks like this.

<collection>
 <one />
 <two />
 <one />
</collection>

Well, this is not kosher in .NET configuration terms. So I reduced my expectations. I want the following.

<collection>
 <add type="one" />
 <add type="two" />
 <add type="one" />
</collection>

Every element has more-a-less similar parameters, but they might vary slightly. Since “one” and “two” are specialized, I’d like to implement two classes One and Two and derive them from the same common parent class. How do I achieve that?

The trick is to use a proxy class and to manufacture the right type during deserialization.

NestedConfiguration.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;

namespace NestedConfiguration
{
  public class CollectionSection : ConfigurationSection
  {
    [ConfigurationProperty("collection", IsDefaultCollection = false)]
    [ConfigurationCollection(typeof(CollectionConfig), AddItemName = "add")]
    public CollectionConfig Collection
    {
      get
      {
        return (CollectionConfig) this["collection"];
      }

      set
      {
        this["collection"] = value;
      }
    }
  }

  public class Parent : ConfigurationElement
  {
    [ConfigurationProperty("name", IsRequired = true)]
    public string Name
    {
      get
      {
        return (string) this["name"];
      }

      set
      {
        this["name"] = value;
      }
    }

    [ConfigurationProperty("type", IsRequired = true)]
    public string Type
    {
      get
      {
        return (string) this["type"];
      }

      set
      {
        this["type"] = value;
      }
    }

    public void ProxyDeserializeElement(XmlReader reader, bool serializeCollectionKey)
    {
      DeserializeElement(reader, serializeCollectionKey);
    }
  }

  public class One : Parent
  {
    [ConfigurationProperty("p1")]
    public string P1
    {
      get
      {
        return (string)this["p1"];
      }

      set
      {
        this["p1"] = value;
      }
    }
  }

  public class Two : Parent
  {
    [ConfigurationProperty("p2")]
    public string P2
    {
      get
      {
        return (string)this["p2"];
      }

      set
      {
        this["p2"] = value;
      }
    }
  }

  public class Proxy : ConfigurationElement
  {
    private Parent _Parent = null;

    public Parent Parent
    {
      get
      {
        return _Parent;
      }
    }

    public Proxy()
    {
    }

    public Parent Instance
    {
      get
      {
        return _Parent;
      }
    }

    protected override void DeserializeElement(XmlReader reader, bool serializeCollectionKey)
    {
      string type = reader.GetAttribute("type");
      switch (type)
      {
        case "one":
          _Parent = new One();
          break;
        case "two":
          _Parent = new Two();
          break;
        default:
          throw new ArgumentException(string.Format("Invalid type: {0}", type));
      }

      _Parent.ProxyDeserializeElement(reader, serializeCollectionKey);
    }
  }

  public class CollectionConfig : ConfigurationElementCollection
  {
    public CollectionConfig()
    {

    }

    protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement()
    {
      return new Proxy();
    }

    protected override Object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element)
    {
      return ((Proxy)element).Parent.Name;
    }

    public Parent this[int index]
    {
      get
      {
        return ((Proxy)BaseGet(index)).Parent;
      }

      set
      {
        if (BaseGet(index) != null)
        {
          BaseRemoveAt(index);
        }

        BaseAdd(index, value);
      }
    }
  }
}

App.config

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
 <configSections>
  <section name="CollectionSection" type="NestedConfiguration.CollectionSection, NestedConfiguration" />
 </configSections>
 <CollectionSection>
  <collection>
   <add type="one" name="one-1" p1="one-1 p1" />
   <add type="one" name="one-2" p1="one-2 p1" />
   <add type="two" name="two-1" p2="two-1 p2" />
  </collection>
 </CollectionSection>
</configuration>

Program.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Text;

namespace NestedConfiguration
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      try
      {
        ExeConfigurationFileMap map = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
        map.ExeConfigFilename = "NestedConfiguration.exe.config";
        Configuration configuration = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(map, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
        CollectionSection config = (CollectionSection)configuration.Sections[typeof(CollectionSection).Name];
        Console.WriteLine("Nested configurations: {0}", config.Collection.Count);
        foreach (Proxy proxy in config.Collection)
        {
          Console.WriteLine("Type: {0}", proxy.Parent.GetType());
        }
      }
      catch(Exception ex)
      {
        Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
      }
    }
  }
}

Daniel Doubrovkine

Nesting multiple ConfigurationElement types in a ConfigurationElementCollection dotnet

NestedConfiguration.cs

App.config

Program.cs

Nesting multiple ConfigurationElement types in a ConfigurationElementCollection