Hello.

I have been really struggling here this week; maybe I'm just too tired
to grasp the new API for configuration.

I have a custom configuration class that descends from
ConfigurationSection. I have a couple of simple string properties setup
declaratively via the ConfigurationProperty attribute. All works well
until I begin adding validators to those same properties.

Here's a great example:

[ConfigurationProperty("someValue"), RegexStringValidator(@"\w+")]
public string SomeValue {
    get { return (string)this["someValue"]; }
    set { this["someValue"] = value; }
}


This seems simple enough; however, I always get an error when the
configuration section is handled. It does not matter what value I put
in, it fails (e.g. <add someValue="Work" />). If I remove the validator,
it works just fine.

So, I decided to do some digging via the debugger. It's difficult since
it's all handled via reflection. I created a custom validator so I could
set a breakpoint and see what the heck was going on.

public class MyValidator : ConfigurationValidatorBase {

    public override bool CanValidate(Type type) {
        return (type == typeof(string));
    }

    public override void Validate(object value) {
        // * Set breakpoint here.
        throw new ApplicationException("The value is: " + (string)value);
    }
}

....

[ConfigurationProperty("someValue"),
ConfigurationValidator(typeof(MyValidator))]
public string SomeValue {
    get { return (string)this["someValue"]; }
    set { this["someValue"] = value; }
}


When debugging and the breakpoint inside the validator class' Validate
method is hit; I can see the problem. The value argument is an empty
string at this point (""). Huh??? That's why my RegexStringValidator
failed. I reverted back to using it but with this regex instead: @"\w*".
You guessed it, it works then. It works even when the value is invalid
(e.g. <add someValue="*%! This should certainly fail!!" />).

Why is the deserialized value an empty string? No validation can be
properly added if the value is empty during the validation process. I
know it's reading the value in properly if there is no validation; I can
display SomeValue with success.

I'm frustratingly stumped! Can anyone shed some light over here?


Thanks in advance,
Matt

Sorry to respond w/o offering any help, but you're further along in the
process of making ConfigurationSection objects work - could you shed any
light on my problem ("Can't make simple ConfigurationSection object work",
today's date).

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