ConfigurationElementCollection Class

The ConfigurationElementCollection represents a collection of elements within a configuration file.

Note
An element within a configuration file refers to a basic XML element or a section. A simple element is an XML tag with related attributes, if any. A simple element constitutes a section. Complex sections can contain one or more simple elements, a collection of elements, and other sections.

You use the ConfigurationElementCollection to work with a collection of ConfigurationElement objects. Implement this class to add collections of custom ConfigurationElement elements to a ConfigurationSection.

You can use a programmatic or a declarative (attributed) coding model to create a custom configuration element.

The programmatic model requires that for each element attribute you create a property to get and set its value, and that you add it to the internal property bag of the underlying ConfigurationElement base class.

The declarative model, also referred to as the attributed model, allows you to define an element attribute by using a property and configuring it with attributes. These attributes instruct the ASP.NET configuration system about the property types and their default values. ASP.NET can use reflection to obtain this information and then create the element property objects and perform the required initialization.

The following example shows how to use the ConfigurationCollectionElement.

The first example consists of three classes: UrlsSection, UrlsCollection and UrlConfigElement.The UrlsSection class uses the ConfigurationCollectionAttribute to define a custom configuration section. This section contains a URL collection (defined by the UrlsCollection class) of URL elements (defined by the UrlConfigElement class).

This second code example uses the classes specified before. You combine these two examples in a console application project.

When you run the console application, an instance of the UrlsSection class is created and the following configuration elements are generated in the application configuration file:

<configuration>
    <configSections>
        <section name="MyUrls" type="UrlsSection, 
          ConfigurationElementCollection, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null" />
    </configSections>
    <MyUrls>
        <urls>
           <add name="Contoso" url="http://www.contoso.com" port="4040 />
        </urls>
    </MyUrls>
</configuration

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP SP2 x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

Reference