Manipulate configuration files to change ASP.NET behavior

As you no doubt already now it, the .NET Framework stores application configuration information in dedicated XML files, with the extension of .config. You can easily manage your application using these configuration files. When working with ASP.NET, the hierarchy is as follows:

1. Machine.config
2. Machine web.config
3. Root (application) web.config
4. Subfolder web.config

Embed Configuration Management Functionality

You have to choices to store application data when working with the .NET Framework. The first opportunity is to hard-code it, the second is to use external, XML-based configuration files. The .NET Framework has a whole hierarchy of these files. On the top of it lives the machine.config. This configuration file is machine-wide, all managed applications refer to it.

When you are working with web applications, the hierarchy can have numerous levels. For standard (desktop) applications, there’s only one more level, the application configuration file of the current program. This typically has the name of TheApplicationName.exe.config.

First, let’s set out the rules. If you’d like to read from a configuration file from your code, you’ll require rights for reading all configuration files which plays a role in your application, back to machine.config. To modify configuration files from code, you’ll need the reading rights mentioned before, and writing rights to the application’s configuration file.