Configuration System Failed to Initialize

Configuration System Failed to Initialize

Make sure that your config file (web.config if web, or app.config if windows) in your project starts as:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
    <configSections>
        <sectionGroup name="applicationSettings" 
                      type="System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsGroup, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" >

            <section name="YourProjectName.Properties.Settings" 
                     type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" 
                     requirePermission="false" />

        </sectionGroup>
    </configSections>
</configuration>

Note that inside the configuration element, the first child must be the configSections element.

In the name property on section element, make sure you replace YourProjectName with your actual project's name.

It happened to me that I created a webservice in a class library project, then I copied (overwriting) the config file (in order to bring the endpoints configuration) to my windows app and I started to have the same problem. I had inadvertently removed configSections.

app.config - configuration system failed to initialize with custom section

I notice 2 things

A configuration section can only appear 1 time within a configuration file.

The full initialization exception shows:

System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: Configuration system failed to initialize --->
System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: Sections must only appear once per config file.

This means you can only have 1 product section:

<productGroup>
    <product name="my name" id="1" />       
</productGroup>

If you need multiple, you need to declare multiple sections with unique section names:

<configuration>
    <sectionGroup name="productGroup">
        <section name="product" type="myProject.Stuff.Api.ProductSection" />
        <section name="product2" type="myProject.Stuff.Api.ProductSection" />
    </sectionGroup>

    <!-- Other configuration elements -->

    <productGroup>
        <product name="my name" id="1" />
        <product2 name="my name 2" id="2" />
    </productGroup>
</configuration>

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It is a best practice to declare the section in app/web.config with its fully qualified assemblyname,

which includes the name of the assembly (without file extension).

This is a must if the class/section is defined in an external assembly; here ProductionSection is defined in an assembly other than the one of the main unittest.

Declare the section as below in the App.config file of your unittest project.

(Replace NameOfTheAssemblyContainingTheProductSectionClass with the name of your assembly.)

<section
    name="product"
    type="myProject.Stuff.Api.ProductSection, NameOfTheAssemblyContainingTheProductSectionClass"             
    />

Configuration System Failed To Initialize

Try putting the configSections as the first child element of configuration, because configSections should be the first element of configurations

So your config file will go like this:

<configuration>

  <configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="userSettings" type="System.Configuration.UserSettingsGroup, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089">
      <section name="Vegi_Manager.Properties.Settings" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" allowExeDefinition="MachineToLocalUser" requirePermission="false"/>
    </sectionGroup>
  </configSections>

  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="ConStr" connectionString="Integrated Security=false;Persist Security Info=False;User ID=funny;password=veryfunny;Initial Catalog=vegimanager;Data Source=.\sqlexpress;"/>
  </connectionStrings>

  <userSettings>
    <Vegi_Manager.Properties.Settings>
      <setting name="FIRMNAME" serializeAs="String">
        <value/>
      </setting>
      <setting name="FIRMADDRESS" serializeAs="String">
        <value/>
      </setting>
      <setting name="FIRMCITY" serializeAs="String">
        <value/>
      </setting>
      <setting name="FIRMSTATE" serializeAs="String">
        <value/>
      </setting>
      <setting name="FIRMPHONE" serializeAs="String">
        <value/>
      </setting>
      <setting name="FIRMMOBILE" serializeAs="String">
        <value/>
      </setting>
      <setting name="FIRMEMAIL" serializeAs="String">
        <value/>
      </setting>
      <setting name="FIRMTIN" serializeAs="String">
        <value/>
      </setting>
      <setting name="FIRMPAN" serializeAs="String">
        <value/>
      </setting>
      <setting name="FIRMMANDITAXNO" serializeAs="String">
        <value/>
      </setting>
      <setting name="INITIALFONFIGDONE" serializeAs="String">
        <value>False</value>
      </setting>
      <setting name="FIRMJURISDICTION" serializeAs="String">
        <value/>
      </setting>
      <setting name="FIRMBANKDETAILS" serializeAs="String">
        <value/>
      </setting>
      <setting name="FIRMDETAILS" serializeAs="String">
        <value/>
      </setting>
      <setting name="BILLFORMATNO" serializeAs="String">
        <value>0</value>
      </setting>
      <setting name="PRINTERNAME" serializeAs="String">
        <value/>
      </setting>
    </Vegi_Manager.Properties.Settings>
  </userSettings>

  <startup>
    <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.0"/>
  </startup>
</configuration>

How to solve App config error Configuration system failed to initialize

It seems like you're missing the appSettings element that wraps your key-value collection. It should look more like the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="DataSource" value=" My Database'IP adress "/>
    <add key="Database" value="My database Name"/>
    <add key="Name" value="User name"/>
    <add key="Password" value="Password"/>
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

Configuration system failed to initialize after adding a new external config file containing a new section

After reading the following I developed a working solution:

• Moving a custom configuration group to a separate file
• An error occurred creating the configuration section handler
• How to get the values of a ConfigurationSection of type NameValueSectionHandler

Updated App.config:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="globalSettings" type="System.Configuration.AppSettingsSection"/>
  </configSections>
  <appSettings file="AppSettings.config"/>
  <connectionStrings configSource="ConnectionStrings.config"/>
  <globalSettings file="GlobalSettings.config"/>
  <startup>
    <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5.2" />
  </startup>
</configuration>

Updated GlobalSettings.config:

<globalSettings>
  <add key="key" value="keyValue" />
</globalSettings>

Function code:

private void RetrieveKey()
        {
            var config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
            AppSettingsSection globalSettingSection = (AppSettingsSection)config.GetSection("globalSettings");
            key = globalSettingSection.Settings["key"].Value;
        }

I have found that you need to define the new section in the App.config rather than in the config file you're creating. Also the type of the section is important. You can use one of the following:

• type="System.Configuration.AppSettingsSection"
• type="System.Configuration.IgnoreSectionHandler
• type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler"

I found type="System.Configuration.AppSettingsSection" to be the most useful as it makes the config most like the AppSettings.config file.

Please let me know if you have any changes that would make things more efficient.

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