Separate config file for sections of web.config

Is it possible to have separate config files for specific sections of the web.config? Specifically I’d like to move IIS 7’s rewrite section out of the web.config and into it’s own config file.

Answers:

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Method 1

You can certainly move your rewrite rules and mappings out to a separate file:

Storing URL rewrite mappings in a separate file

<system.webServer>
  <rewrite>
    <rewriteMaps configSource="rewritemaps.config" />
    <rules configSource="rewriteRules.config" />
  </rewrite>
</system.webServer>

In addition you can move quite a few configuration sections to their own files:

<appSettings configSource="appSettings.config" /> [Docs]

<connectionStrings configSource="connectionStrings.config"/> [Docs]

<pages configSource="pages.config"/> [Docs]

For more info see this page which will help you decide if a configuration section can be stored externally:

General Attributes Inherited by Section Elements

Method 2

Yes, this is possible.

For each configuration section, you can set the configSource attribute to the location (file) where you are holding the configuration.

E.g.:

<appSettings configSource="appSettings.config" />

And in appSettings.config:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<appSettings>
    <add key="myKey" value="myValue" />
</appSettings>

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