advanced patterns with Configuration Binding in .NET 6 Web API - Missing Required Fields
Quick question that's been bugging me - I'm trying to bind a configuration section from my appsettings.json file to a POCO class in my .NET 6 Web API project... The scenario arises when I attempt to access a required field that I configured as non-nullable in my class, yet it appears to be null at runtime, causing a `System.InvalidOperationException` when my API endpoint is hit. Here's my appsettings.json: ```json { "MySettings": { "ConnectionString": "Server=myServer;Database=myDb;User Id=myUser;Password=myPass;", "ApiKey": "12345", "MaxItems": 10 } } ``` And my POCO class looks like this: ```csharp public class MySettings { public string ConnectionString { get; set; } = null!; public string ApiKey { get; set; } = null!; public int MaxItems { get; set; } } ``` In my `Program.cs`, I've configured the binding like this: ```csharp builder.Services.Configure<MySettings>(builder.Configuration.GetSection("MySettings")); ``` When I try to access these settings in one of my controllers: ```csharp public class MyController : ControllerBase { private readonly MySettings _settings; public MyController(IOptions<MySettings> settings) { _settings = settings.Value; } [HttpGet] public IActionResult Get() { if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(_settings.ApiKey)) { throw new InvalidOperationException("API Key not set"); } return Ok(_settings); } } ``` I'm getting an `InvalidOperationException` stating that the API Key is not set, even though it exists in the appsettings.json file. I've also verified that the configuration file is being loaded correctly by outputting some other values. I've tried restarting the application and cleaning the solution, but the question continues. What could be causing this scenario? Are there any best practices for binding configuration settings in .NET 6 that I might be missing? This is part of a larger service I'm building. What's the best practice here? Am I approaching this the right way?