Move system.serviceModel configuration to a separate config file

Question

Is it possible to move system.serviceModel configurations to another config file?
With appSettings, we can do something like
<appSettings file="development.config">
and during runtime, the web.config or the app.config will retrieve the configuration values from development.config.
I tried <system.serviceModel file="wcf.config">  but it doesn't seem to be working.

Answer 1

We had the same problem and we solved it by using the MsBuild Community Tasks. The setup is easy: we have several Master.app.configs, used in unit test, web client and forms client assemblies, and all have a single empty xml block for service model configuration:
Code Snippet
<system.serviceModel />
And we have a Master.Servicemodel.config.xml file in our repository with the following content:
Code Snippet
<configuration xmlns:xmu="urn:msbuildcommunitytasks-xmlmassupdate">
  <substitutions>
    <system.serviceModel>
      <behaviors>
        <endpointBehaviors>
And now the magic part: an MsBuild script called configure.proj with the following task:
Code Snippet
<Target Name="ConfigureServer">
        <!-- merging master config with servicemodel config -->
        <XmlMassUpdate
                ContentFile="<path>\Master.app.config"
                ContentRoot="/configuration/system.serviceModel"
                MergedFile="<path>\App.config"
                SubstitutionsFile="<path>\Master.Servicemodel.config.xml"
                SubstitutionsRoot="/configuration/substitutions/system.serviceModel" />
This task is done for every master config file that should be merged with the service model section. Note, that only the master files are under revision control, so that every developer can change the local config files without marking the working copy as changed. And by executing the configure-script, all local config files are switched back to a default status again. This is very helpful and is also included in our nightly build script.
Bye,
Marc