ConfigurationManager.GetSection always gives object with default values

Question

Here is the ConfigurationSection class

using System.Configuration;

namespace CampusWebStore.Config
{
    public class PoolerConfig : ConfigurationSection
    {
        [ConfigurationProperty("PoolId", IsRequired = true)]
        public string PoolId { get; set; }
        [ConfigurationProperty("Host", IsRequired = true)]
        public string Host { get; set; }
        [ConfigurationProperty("Port", IsRequired = true)]
        public int Port { get; set; }
        [ConfigurationProperty("Enabled", IsRequired = true)]
        public bool Enabled { get; set; }
    }
}

The web.config section definition

<section name="PoolerConfig" type="CampusWebStore.Config.PoolerConfig, CampusWebStore"/>

The actual section

<PoolerConfig
    PoolId="asdf-asdf-asdf-asdf"
    Host="localhost"
    Port="5000"
    Enabled="true"
  />

And then the line that loads it (in Global.asax.cs)

PoolerConfig poolerConfig = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("PoolerConfig") as PoolerConfig;

It seems that no matter what I do, all the properties in my PoolerConfig are default values (null strings, 0 ints, etc). Research indicates this should be easy as pie, but to no avail I cannot figure this out.

Answer 1

You cannot use get/set backers for configuration properties. You must access the base class to manipulate the properties. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2tw134k3(v=vs.100).aspx for an example.

Change:

 [ConfigurationProperty("PoolId", IsRequired = true)]
 public string PoolId { get; set; }

To:

 [ConfigurationProperty("PoolId", IsRequired = true)]
 public string PoolId 
 {
    get { return (string)this["PoolID"]; }
    set { this["PoolID"] = value; }
 }