Edit and Encrypt Web.Config sections using C# 2.0

Introduction

ASP.NET 1.x allowed configurations in web.config file to be read from .NET application. But there were no options to manipulate Web.Config contents in programatically. To achieve this we had to consider Web.Config file as a normal file or an xml file. .NET 2.0 fills this gap and also provides many other useful operations to be carried out on Web.Config file; like editing and encrypting sections of Web.Config file. This articles illustrates these functionalities via a sample ASP.NET application. 

Using the code

The classes and methods to take control of the Web.Config file span across 2 namespaces.

1. System.Configuration
2. System.Web.Configuration

Each section in the Web.Config file has a corresponding class in either of the namespace. These classes allow modification of corresponding sections. The classes for sections within the "system.web" section are found in System.Web.Configuration. Classes for other sections that are not specific to Web.Config are found in System.Configuration.