appSettings file attribute equivalent for applicationSettings

Question

In a asp.net web.config file you can do

<appSettings file="local.appSettings.config">
    <add key="foo" value="bar" />
</appSettings>

and it will look in local.appSettings.config for any overrides to the foo/bar setting.

Is there an equivalent for applicationSettings? Something like this

<applicationSettings file="local.applicationSettings.config">
    <FooBar.My.MySettings>
        <setting name="foo" serializeAs="String">
            <value>bar</value>
        </setting>
    </FooBar.My.MySettings>
</applicationSettings>

or even a different approach to maintaining a different set of applicationSettings, for instance a set for local development, and a set for production

Range

Answer 1

I am unaware of an equivalent, but you can utilise the configSource attribute and store the application settings in an external file. Using the configSource attribute, there will not be a merging of settings. Also, I believe the configSource is available starting in .Net 2.0.

Winkle

configSource doesn't seem to be an optional file though. If the file cannot be found, an exception is thrown. Is there a way to make it optional? – Astridastride