c# - Custom app.config section with a simple list of "add" elements

Question

How do I create a custom app.config section that is just a simple list of add elements?

I have found a few examples (e.g. How to create custom config section in app.config?) for custom sections that look like this:

<RegisterCompanies>
  <Companies>
    <Company name="Tata Motors" code="Tata"/>
    <Company name="Honda Motors" code="Honda"/>
  </Companies>
</RegisterCompanies>

But how do I avoid the extra collection element ("Companies") so that it looks the same as the appSettings and connectionStrings sections? In other words, I'd like:

<registerCompanies>
  <add name="Tata Motors" code="Tata"/>
  <add name="Honda Motors" code="Honda"/>
</registerCompanies>

Answer 1

Full example with code based on OP config file:

<configuration>
    <configSections>
        <section name="registerCompanies" 
                 type="My.MyConfigSection, My.Assembly" />
    </configSections>
    <registerCompanies>
        <add name="Tata Motors" code="Tata"/>
        <add name="Honda Motors" code="Honda"/>
    </registerCompanies>
</configuration>

Here is the sample code to implement a custom config section with collapsed collection

using System.Configuration;
namespace My {
public class MyConfigSection : ConfigurationSection {
    [ConfigurationProperty("", IsRequired = true, IsDefaultCollection = true)]
    public MyConfigInstanceCollection Instances {
        get { return (MyConfigInstanceCollection)this[""]; }
        set { this[""] = value; }
    }
}
public class MyConfigInstanceCollection : ConfigurationElementCollection {
    protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement() {
        return new MyConfigInstanceElement();
    }

    protected override object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element) {
        //set to whatever Element Property you want to use for a key
        return ((MyConfigInstanceElement)element).Name;
    }
}

public class MyConfigInstanceElement : ConfigurationElement {
    //Make sure to set IsKey=true for property exposed as the GetElementKey above
    [ConfigurationProperty("name", IsKey = true, IsRequired = true)]
    public string Name {
        get { return (string) base["name"]; }
        set { base["name"] = value; }
    }

    [ConfigurationProperty("code", IsRequired = true)]
    public string Code {
        get { return (string) base["code"]; }
        set { base["code"] = value; }
    } } }

Here is an example of how to access the configuration information from code.

var config = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("registerCompanies") 
                 as MyConfigSection;

Console.WriteLine(config["Tata Motors"].Code);
foreach (var e in config.Instances) { 
   Console.WriteLine("Name: {0}, Code: {1}", e.Name, e.Code); 
}