Summary

This chapter was devoted to the topic of configuration. In the first section, you were provided with an overview of the configuration sections used by the ASP.NET Framework. You learned how to lock configuration sections to prevent sections from being modified. You also learned how to place configuration sections in external files.

Next, we tackled the topic of the Configuration API. You learned how to read and modify configuration files programmatically. You also learned how to provision new ASP.NET applications by creating new virtual directories and configuration files.

You also learned how to create custom configuration sections. You learned how to create both simple custom configuration sections and custom configuration sections that contain custom collections of configuration elements.

Finally, we discussed the topic of encryption. You learned how to encrypt a configuration section by using the aspnet_regiis command-line tool. You also learned how to encrypt configuration sections programmatically. In the final section, you also learned how to deploy encrypted configuration files from a development server to a production server.