<appSettings>

The <appSettings> element allows you to create your own configuration settings as key/value pairs. You can use this configuration element to store configuration information such as DSNs for data access, and then retrieve them in your application using the following syntax:

string DSN DSN = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["dsn "];

This is assuming that you’ve stored the DSN using “dsn” as the key.

The <appSettings> element has the following syntax:

<appSettings>    <ad       key="string       value="string" />    <clear />    <remov       key="string" /> </appSettings>

Table B-20 describes the <appSettings> element attributes in more detail.

Table B-20: <appSettings> Element Attributes

Element	Attribute	Description
<appSettings>		Creates key/value pairs that can be retrieved using ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings(key).
<add>		Adds a key/value pair.
	key	Specifies the name of the key to use to retrieve the value.
	value	Specifies the value to be returned.
<clear>		Removes all key/value pairs added (or inherited) by the current Web.config file.
<remove>	key	Removes the specified name/value pair added (or inherited) by the current Web.config file.