How to resolve key/value pair with external .config file - winforms

Question

I am specifying <appSettings> in my app.config file, I am adding
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings configSource="ShareAppSettings.debug.config"/>
<startup>
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.7.1"/>
</startup>
</configuration>
ShareAppSettigns.debug.config is my external config file, which I am using on my local machine and I do not want to share it with the rest of my team.
ShareAppSettings.debug.config looks like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<appSettings>
<add key="clientID" value="11" />
<add key="clientSecret" value="11" />
<add key="tenantID" value="11" />
</appSettings>
Whenever I am trying to debug the main code:
private static List<string> AppCredentials()
{
string clientID = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["clientID"];
string clientSecret = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["clientSecret"];
string tenantID = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["tenantID"];
List<string> appCred = new List<string> { clientID, clientSecret, tenantID };
if (clientID == null)
throw new Exception("ShareAppSettings.Debug.Config file was not provided in this repo.");
return (appCred);
}
For some reason I am not getting values for clientId, slientSecret nor tenantId. This code is a part of grasshopper Add-on for v6 template, and its running on .NET Framework 4.7.1. Whenever I copy the same code into a new C# console of a same framework, the code is built. I would truly appreciate if you could give me suggestions on how to solve this.
What "EnableWindowsFormsHighDpiAutoResizing" means and how can make this work?
Many Thanks
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Answer 1

I suggest to use the file attribute (corresponding to the AppSettingsSection.File property) instead of the configSource attribute (corresponding to the SectionInformation.ConfigSource property) in the appSettings section.
configSource doesn't support other keys in the section, while appSettings may contain other keys, needed by the Application and possibly somewhere else (someone else may add/remove them - for testing purposes or any other reason).
The file attribute allows instead the presence of other key in the appSettings section.
Your app.config file can be:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings file="ShareAppSettings.debug.config">
<add key="DpiAwareness" value="PerMonitorV2"/>
</appSettings>
<startup>
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.7.1"/>
</startup>
</configuration>
Now the values are accessible by both opening a named configuration section:
appSettings.Settings[] returns a KeyValueConfigurationElement
Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
AppSettingsSection appSettings = (AppSettingsSection)config.GetSection("appSettings");
var kvpClientID = appSettings.Settings["clientID"];
var kvpClientSecret = appSettings.Settings["clientSecret"];
var kvpCenantID = appSettings.Settings["tenantID"];
string clientID = kvpClientID.Value;
and directly, using ConfigurationManager.AppSettings - a NameValueCollection - which returns the value of the specified key:
string clientID = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["clientID"];
string clientSecret = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["clientSecret"];
string tenantID = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["tenantID"];
As a note, using the file attribute, your ShareAppSettings.debug.config doesn't need (but it's not forbidden) the XML header, it can be just:
<appSettings>
<add key="clientID" value="11" />
<add key="clientSecret" value="11" />
<add key="tenantID" value="11" />
</appSettings>
Secondary note:
you can set the file attribute to point to another file at run-time and refresh the appSettings values to updated the configuration.
Note that, if a file attribute was already set, all values contained in that .config file are not dismissed, but instead moved to the [Application].exe.config file, to become part of the <appSettings> section (thus, they are preserved).
Another reason why using the file attribute may be preferable.
var config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
var appSettings = config.AppSettings;
appSettings.File = "SomeOtherFile.config";
config.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified);
ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection("appSettings");