Modifying web.config at runtime for unit test

Gordon.Duthie — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:47:00 GMT

Lately I've had the need to use the test framework from within Visual Studio. However, one problem which i came across was trying to change the web.config appSettings and connectionString to reference a local database.

Below is the solution I have came up with:

[ClassInitialize()]

public static void ChangeWebConfigValuesForTest(TestContext testContext)
{

            // Get the configuration file.
            ExeConfigurationFileMap map = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
            map.ExeConfigFilename = "c:\\localpath\\web.config";
            Configuration webConfig = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(map, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);

            // Change the app setting value
            AppSettingsSection appSettingsSection = (AppSettingsSection)webConfig.GetSection("appSettings");
           appSettingsSection.Settings["valueToChange"].Value = "TestValue"

           // Change connection string setting
           ConnectionStringSettings connectionStringSettings = webConfig.ConnectionStrings.ConnectionStrings["DBConnectionString"];
            connectionStringSettings.ConnectionString = "Data Source=.;Initial Catalog=TestDB;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=testuser;Password=password";

//Save the config file
webConfig.Save();

}

Gordon Duthie's Blog

Modifying web.config at runtime for unit test