Is there a way to get a System.Configuration.Configuration instance based on arbitrary xml?

Question

I'm trying to unit test a custom ConfigurationSection I've written, and I'd like to load some arbitrary configuration XML into a System.Configuration.Configuration for each test (rather than put the test configuration xml in the Tests.dll.config file. That is, I'd like to do something like this:

Configuration testConfig = new Configuration("<?xml version=\"1.0\"?><configuration>...</configuration>");
MyCustomConfigSection section = testConfig.GetSection("mycustomconfigsection");
Assert.That(section != null);

However, it looks like ConfigurationManager will only give you Configuration instances that are associated with an EXE file or a machine config. Is there a way to load arbitrary XML into a Configuration instance?

Oliver Pearmain · Accepted Answer · 2009-04-01 09:47:59Z

18

There is actually a way I've discovered....

You need to define a new class inheriting from your original configuration section as follows:

public class MyXmlCustomConfigSection : MyCustomConfigSection
{
    public MyXmlCustomConfigSection (string configXml)
    {
        XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader(new StringReader(configXml));
        DeserializeSection(reader);
    }
}

You can then instantiate your ConfigurationSection object as follows:

string configXml = "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?><configuration>...</configuration>";
MyCustomConfigSection config = new MyXmlCustomConfigSection(configXml);

Hope it helps someone :-)

answered Apr 1, 2009 at 9:47

Oliver Pearmain

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2 Comments

Jonathan C Dickinson Over a year ago

props for actually answering his question.

batta Over a year ago

While the custom Xml read is a good solution, the xml snippet is not correct. The DeserializeSection expects the xml to be just the section piece like <MySection><MyConfig><add key="key" value="value" /></MyConfig></MySection>

Nick B · Accepted Answer · 2008-08-24 09:02:25Z

1

I think what you're looking for is ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration

It allows you to open a configuration file that you specify with a file path (wrapped inside a ExeConfigurationFileMap)

If what the other poster said is true, and you don't wish to create a whole new XML file for testing, then I'd recommend you put your Configuration edits in the Test method itself, then run your tests against the freshly changed configuration data.

answered Aug 24, 2008 at 9:02

Nick B

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Comments

TheSmurf · Accepted Answer · 2008-08-21 20:02:26Z

0

Looking at the members of the class, I'd say the answer is probably no*. I'm not sure why you'd want to do this anyway, rather than create your own XML configuration file.

*That's no, excluding messy reflection hacks

answered Aug 21, 2008 at 20:02

TheSmurf

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