This example reads a connection string from a Web.config file. The connectionStrings element is a ConnectionStringSettingsCollection collection of ConnectionStringSettings objects. Working with collection elements can be slightly more complicated than working with other configuration elements.
To update a configuration setting, use the Save or SaveAs method of the configuration object. For more information, see Using the Configuration Classes. For additional code examples, see the ConnectionStringsSection class and related classes.
This example uses the non-static method of obtaining configuration data, which allows you to pull configuration information from any application. If you are going to obtain configuration information from the application in which your code resides, use the static method, which processes faster. For more information, see the Working with Local and Remote Configuration Settings section in ASP.NET Configuration API Overview.
System.Configuration.Configuration rootWebConfig =
System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration("/MyWebSiteRoot");
System.Configuration.ConnectionStringSettings connString;
if (0 < rootWebConfig.ConnectionStrings.ConnectionStrings.Count)
{
connString =
rootWebConfig.ConnectionStrings.ConnectionStrings["NorthwindConnectionString"];
if (null != connString)
Console.WriteLine("Northwind connection string = /"{0}/"",
connString.ConnectionString);
else
Console.WriteLine("No Northwind connection string");
}
<connectionStrings>
<add
name="NorthwindConnectionString"
connectionString="Data Source=serverName;Initial
Catalog=Northwind;Persist Security Info=True;User
ID=userName;Password=password"
providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"
/>
</connectionStrings>
The connectionStrings element is a direct child of the <configuration> element and a peer of the system.web element.