Web.Config changes to extended sites programatically

Question

How can you add web.config changes to Extended sites programatically? SPWebConfigModification class does this for both the Main web application and extended web application. I want to do it only for the extended site. Any ideas>

Answer 1

Unfortunately you have reached the limits of what SPWebConfigModification can do, you need to do the changes manually, i like xml transforms.

But once you know you need to do 'some' changes manually, you may as well to them all manually, because the SPWebConfigModification mods will conflict with your manual mods.

And SPWebConfigModification's can not be used to make changes to service application web.configs (Security Token Service Application), so i rarely use them now.

$configpath = ((get-item "IIS:\Sites\$iispath").physicalPath + "\web.config")
$config = [xml](get-content $configpath)

$attr = $config.CreateAttribute("enabled")
$attr.psbase.Value = "true"
$config.Configuration."system.web".roleManager.SetAttributeNode($attr) | out-null

$node = (Select-Xml -Xml $config -XPath "/configuration/system.web/membership/providers/add['AspNetSqlMembershipProvider']").Node
$attr = $config.CreateAttribute("connectionStringName")
$attr.psbase.Value = "AspNetSqlMemberShipProvider"
$node.SetAttributeNode($attr) | out-null
$attr = $config.CreateAttribute("enablePasswordRetrieval")
$attr.psbase.Value = "false"
$node.SetAttributeNode($attr) | out-null
$attr = $config.CreateAttribute("enablePasswordReset")
$attr.psbase.Value = "true"
$node.SetAttributeNode($attr) | out-null
$attr = $config.CreateAttribute("requiresQuestionAndAnswer")
$attr.psbase.Value = "true"
$node.SetAttributeNode($attr) | out-null
$attr = $config.CreateAttribute("passwordAttemptWindow")
$attr.psbase.Value = "10"
$node.SetAttributeNode($attr) | out-null
$attr = $config.CreateAttribute("applicationName")
$attr.psbase.Value = "/"
$node.SetAttributeNode($attr) | out-null
$attr = $config.CreateAttribute("requiresUniqueEmail")
$attr.psbase.Value = "false"
$node.SetAttributeNode($attr) | out-null
$attr = $config.CreateAttribute("passwordFormat")
$attr.psbase.Value = "Hashed"
$node.SetAttributeNode($attr) | out-null            

$node = (Select-Xml -Xml $config -XPath "/configuration/system.web/roleManager/providers/add['AspNetSqlRoleProvider']").Node
$attr = $config.CreateAttribute("connectionStringName")
$attr.psbase.Value = "AspNetSqlMemberShipProvider"
$node.SetAttributeNode($attr) | out-null
$attr = $config.CreateAttribute("applicationName")
$attr.psbase.Value = "/"
$node.SetAttributeNode($attr) | out-null

Copy-Item $configpath "$configpath.$(get-date -f yyyyMMddhhmmss).config"
$config.Save($configpath);

Answer 2

The only way i can think of doing this would be using a Timerjob which executes on each server and makes the required changes. The SPWebConfigModification class is not that great for all scenarios.

For some good articles about using the SPWebConfigModification class see these:

SPWebConfigModification’s Top 6 Issues

How To: Modify the web.config file in SharePoint using SPWebConfigModification - Mark Wagner - Cogitation Blog