ConfigurationManager.AppSettings is empty?

Question

I have a VS2008 ASP.NET Web Service Application running on the local IIS of my XP machine. A separate project in the same solution uses test methods to invoke the WS calls, and run their processes.

When I added a web reference to the WS App, VS2008 created a Settings.settings file in the Properties folder to store the address of the web reference. This process also created a new section in the Web.config file called applicationSettings to store the values from Settings.settings

When my application attempts to retrieve configuration values from the appSettings section of the Web.config file, via ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[key], all values are null and AppSettings.AllKeys.Length is always zero.

I even reverted the Web.config file to before the web reference was added, and made sure it was exactly the same as a system-generated web.config file for a new project that works fine. After comparing the reverted Web.config and a new Web.config, I addded one simple value in the appSettings section, and still no luck with ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[key].

Here is the reverted Web.config that cannot be read from

    <?xml version="1.0"?>

<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="system.web.extensions" type="System.Web.Configuration.SystemWebExtensionsSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
      <sectionGroup name="scripting" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
        <section name="scriptResourceHandler" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingScriptResourceHandlerSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication"/>
        <sectionGroup name="webServices" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingWebServicesSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
          <section name="jsonSerialization" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingJsonSerializationSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="Everywhere" />
          <section name="profileService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingProfileServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" />
          <section name="authenticationService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingAuthenticationServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" />
          <section name="roleService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingRoleServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" />
        </sectionGroup>
      </sectionGroup>
    </sectionGroup>
  </configSections>

  <appSettings>
    <add key="testkey" value="testvalue"/>
  </appSettings>

  <connectionStrings/>

  <system.web>
      <!-- 
          Set compilation debug="true" to insert debugging 
          symbols into the compiled page. Because this 
          affects performance, set this value to true only 
          during development.
      -->
      <compilation debug="false">

        <assemblies>
          <add assembly="System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>
          <add assembly="System.Data.DataSetExtensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>
          <add assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
          <add assembly="System.Xml.Linq, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>
        </assemblies>

      </compilation>
      <!--
          The <authentication> section enables configuration 
          of the security authentication mode used by 
          ASP.NET to identify an incoming user. 
      -->
      <authentication mode="Windows" />
      <!--
          The <customErrors> section enables configuration 
          of what to do if/when an unhandled error occurs 
          during the execution of a request. Specifically, 
          it enables developers to configure html error pages 
          to be displayed in place of a error stack trace.

      <customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="GenericErrorPage.htm">
          <error statusCode="403" redirect="NoAccess.htm" />
          <error statusCode="404" redirect="FileNotFound.htm" />
      </customErrors>
      -->

    <pages>
      <controls>
        <add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
        <add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI.WebControls" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
      </controls>
    </pages>

    <httpHandlers>
      <remove verb="*" path="*.asmx"/>
      <add verb="*" path="*.asmx" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
      <add verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
      <add verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" validate="false"/>
    </httpHandlers>
    <httpModules>
      <add name="ScriptModule" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptModule, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
    </httpModules>


  </system.web>

  <system.codedom>
    <compilers>
      <compiler language="c#;cs;csharp" extension=".cs" warningLevel="4"
                type="Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089">
        <providerOption name="CompilerVersion" value="v3.5"/>
        <providerOption name="WarnAsError" value="false"/>
      </compiler>
    </compilers>
  </system.codedom>

  <!-- 
      The system.webServer section is required for running ASP.NET AJAX under Internet
      Information Services 7.0.  It is not necessary for previous version of IIS.
  -->
  <system.webServer>
    <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false"/>
    <modules>
      <remove name="ScriptModule" />
      <add name="ScriptModule" preCondition="managedHandler" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptModule, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
    </modules>
    <handlers>
      <remove name="WebServiceHandlerFactory-Integrated"/>
      <remove name="ScriptHandlerFactory" />
      <remove name="ScriptHandlerFactoryAppServices" />
      <remove name="ScriptResource" />
      <add name="ScriptHandlerFactory" verb="*" path="*.asmx" preCondition="integratedMode"
           type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
      <add name="ScriptHandlerFactoryAppServices" verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" preCondition="integratedMode"
           type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
      <add name="ScriptResource" preCondition="integratedMode" verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    </handlers>
  </system.webServer>

  <runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"/>
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0"/>
      </dependentAssembly>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions.Design" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"/>
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0"/>
      </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>
</configuration>

Has anyone experienced this, or know how to solve the problem?

TIA

-Matt

Solution

When you add a *.Settings file in a VS project its content doesn't go to the app.config file.

VS automatically create a class (in your case it is called Settings) that inherits from ApplicationSettingsBase and is automatically embedded in your dll/exe during build.

In order to get the settings stored you can just create an instance of Settings class in your code and get the value from its public properties.

Comments

[Antoine Robin]

Instead of creating an instance of Settings, call Settings.Default.