ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection("appSettings") has no effect

Question

Background: I'm using a Timer to do some work periodically within a Windows Service. I want the Timer to be configurable at run-time. The only thing I managed to do is configure it at startup.

My solution: I'm using app.config to configure start time and period of timer:

  <appSettings>
    <add key="StartTime" value="14:40:00"/>
    <add key="Period" value="24:00:00"/>
  </appSettings>

I'm using a FileSystemWatcher to notify of File Writes on the config file (will be AppName.exe.config)

    public ConfigWatcher(params object[] args)
    {
        configurationChangedListeners = new List<INotifyConfigurationChanged>();

        string assemblyDirectory = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ApplicationBase;
        NotifyFilters notifyFilters = NotifyFilters.LastWrite;
        _fileSystemWatcher = new FileSystemWatcher()
        {
            Path = assemblyDirectory,
            NotifyFilter = notifyFilters,
            Filter = "*.config"
        };
        _fileSystemWatcher.Changed += OnChanged;
        _fileSystemWatcher.EnableRaisingEvents = true;

        if (args != null)
        {
            foreach (var arg in args)
            {
                AddListener(arg);
            }
        }
    }

    private void OnChanged(object source, System.IO.FileSystemEventArgs e)
    {
        try
        {
            _fileSystemWatcher.EnableRaisingEvents = false;
            ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection("appSettings");
            foreach (var listener in configurationChangedListeners)
            {
                listener.NotifyConfigurationChanged();
            }
        }
        finally
        {
            _fileSystemWatcher.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
        }
    }

Lastly, each listener is getting its configuration like so:

public void NotifyConfigurationChanged()
{
    string strKeyName = "StartTime";
    string startTime = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[strKeyName];
    // ...
}

And the problem: - When I edit the file, the File Watcher triggers the Event but when I try to get the new AppSettings I'm reading the OLD values (from when the service started)

The weird thing is, at some point this setup worked, and then it didn't (without changing code as far as I can tell).

Any help / suggestions are much appreciated.

Possibly related issue http://stackoverflow.com/questions/179254/reloading-configuration-without-restarting-application-using-configurationmanage — M.Babcock, Dec 23 '15 at 16:15
Hey thanks for the response! I checked that topic out but no useful info to solve my problem — raduchept, Dec 23 '15 at 16:55

raduchept · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-24T13:22:15.467

4

The answer to the problem (after a lot of searching :D) was to use OpenExeConfiguration instead of directly accessing AppSettings. From what I understand, the config needs to be opened again after the refresh:

var appSettings = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location).AppSettings;
string setting = appSettings.Settings[strKeyName].Value;

I'm positive though that the first variant worked under a certain circumstance when I first tried it out...

edited Dec 24 '15 at 13:22

answered Dec 24 '15 at 09:58

raduchept

181
4
11

CS0236: A field initializer cannot reference the non-static field, method, or property 'name'. – Fandango68 Aug 15 '22 at 02:32

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 17 '17 at 11:28

3

If you start your application in VS, make sure, that you edit right configuration file. I have spend few hours in order to catch that. Look:

While you debugging you execute (app_name).vshost.exe, if you want to update any key, you have to modify (app_name).vshost.exe.config as well!

Secondly,sectionName is CaseSeNsItIvE))

Perhaps for someone it will be helpful.

answered Jan 17 '17 at 11:28

Alex Belov

31
1

Highly relevant and helpfeul; make sure you edit the right config file! – Culme Feb 06 '19 at 11:31

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 19 '19 at 20:43

Here's a simple answer:

private static ExeConfigurationFileMap configMap = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
private static Configuration _config;                                               
private static KeyValueConfigurationCollection _appSettings = null;               

configMap.ExeConfigFilename = @"\Path\To\App.Config";
_config = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(configMap, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
_appSettings = _config.AppSettings.Settings;

// Do your thing

_config.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified);
ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection(_config.AppSettings.SectionInformation.Name);

It's the .Save that does the trick

ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection("appSettings") has no effect

3 Answers3