ASP.NET: How to get a specific ConnectionString from the Web.Config by name

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ASP.NET: How to get a specific ConnectionString from the Web.Config by name

28. December 2005

You have your ConnectionString for your ASP.NET web app stored in the Web.Config file. Now how exactly how do you get that ConnectionString out of there from within your code?

Sample Web.Config section with a ConnectionString:

Now lets get the ConnectionString from the Web.Config file with only one line of code:

string strConnString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["LocalSqlServer"].ConnectionString;

VB:
Dim strConnString As String = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("LocalSqlServer").ConnectionString

Now isn't that simple? I'm posting this because I did a search and didn't find an example of how to do this. I had to poke around a little and discover this on my own. I hope this helps someone avoid some frustration.

fc854e6c-0c56-4265-977b-cf3e4e89ebd2|37|4.5

asp.net asp.net, database

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Comments

Dirk Knoblett

1/4/2006 4:09:00 AM #

I already attempted to use code like you outline with a MS Access database and was receiving an error when the database connection opened.

My web.config file connection string:
<connectionStrings>
    <remove name="AccessFileName"/>
    <add name="AccessFileName" connectionString="Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=~/App_Data/ASPNetDB.mdb" providerName="System.Data.OleDb"/>
  </connectionStrings>

My VB http://www.microsoft.com/net/" rel="nofollow">http://www.microsoft.com/net/" target="_blank">.NET connection string:
Dim connString As String = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("AccessFileName").ConnectionString

Exception Details: System.Data.OleDb.OleDbException: 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\~\App_Data\ASPNetDB.mdb' is not a valid path.  Make sure that the path name is spelled correctly and that you are connected to the server on which the file resides.

I corrected this error by not referencing the web.config file, changing the VB http://www.microsoft.com/net/" rel="nofollow">http://www.microsoft.com/net/" target="_blank">.NET connection string to:
Dim connString As String = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" + "Data Source=" + Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/ASPNetDB.mdb")

Was I doing something incorrect?

Dirk Knoblett

1/4/2006 4:58:00 AM #

Correction to my post. I copied the wrong web.config snippet, here is the one I'm using.
<connectionStrings>
    <remove name="AccessFileName"/>
    <add name="AccessFileName" connectionString="~/App_Data/ASPNetDB.mdb" providerName="System.Data.OleDb"/>
  </connectionStrings>