IIS Express references machine.config versus project web.config - asp.net

Question

I am writing a WsCF service to retrieve data for multiple clients. I have a service layer that references business manager objects. In essence on the service call, I want to retrieve the provider type (a custom enum in my code) and the connection string from the web.config.
For some reason, the code is unable to find the settings in my project web.config. I am gathering the IIS Express AND the VS development web server are referencing the machine.config. How do I override this. It is extremely frustrating. As you can see from the snippet the setting AND the connection string name exist, but the code never picks it up.
My code:
Private Sub GetDBInformation()
Dim config As System.Configuration.Configuration
config = System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration(Nothing)
If (config.AppSettings.Settings.Count > 0) Then
Dim Setting As System.Configuration.KeyValueConfigurationElement
Setting = config.AppSettings.Settings("DB TYPE")
If Not (Setting.Value = Nothing) Then
Select Case Setting.Value
Case "SQL SERVER"
provider = ProviderType.SqlServer
Case Else
provider = ProviderType.OleDb
End Select
End If
End If
If (config.ConnectionStrings.ConnectionStrings.Count > 0) Then
connection = config.ConnectionStrings.ConnectionStrings("UMADB").ConnectionString
End If
End Sub
The web.config:
<connectionStrings>
<add name="UMADB"
connectionString="Data Source=***********;Initial Catalog=UMA;UserID=********;Password=***********"
providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>
<appSettings>
<add key="DB TYPE" value="SQL SERVER" />
</appSettings>

Answer 1

That's a really roundabout way of accessing the configuration settings. I don't know why or how you got to the machine.config, but there's an easier way.
Don't forget to import the System.Configuration namespace.
Dim Setting As String = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings.Get("DB_TYPE")
If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(DatabaseSetting) Then
Select Case Setting
Case "SQL SERVER"
provider = ProviderType.SqlServer
Case Else
provider = ProviderType.OleDb
End Select
End If
I don't know how or why you got to the machine.config, but that shouldn't happen. With your current approach, try specifying the application root when getting the configuration file:
System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration("~/")