Loading Contents to ListBox via INI

[phlite]

I have been trying for a while. Can anybody help me.

I want to load the contents of an INI file into a listbox, and I want the INI file to load, and save any changes on startup and exit respectively automatically.

Can anyone help?

Cheers

Phil

[Mad Compie]

Yes, I recently found a Class module on the net which implements INI file handling. I tested it and it seems to work too!
Here are the author's data:

Name: CINIFile (CINIFILE.CLS)
Type: Utility API wrapper class
Description: An "object-oriented" approach to using WIndows INI files, with some useful additions.

Author: Klaus H. Probst [[email protected]]
URL: http://www.vbbox.com/

[phlite]

I tried this... very complicated...cheers for it though!

Can anybody suggest any other ways of doing this. I am new(ish) to VB, and still need a bit of help......

Cheers,

Phil

[pro2]

If the keyname in the INI fil is number :
[data]
1=data1
2=data2
3=data3

it,s easy :

Declare Function GetPrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetPrivateProfileStringA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpKeyName As String, ByVal lpDefault As String, ByVal lpReturnedString As String, ByVal nSize As Long, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long
'Declare Function WritePrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" Alias "WritePrivateProfileStringA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpKeyName As String, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long


Sub loadLIST ()
Dim loadedNumber As Integer
Dim URL1 As String

loadedNumber=1
URL1= "c:\windows\win.ini" ' Path of the ini file

NextOne:

If Not GetPrivateProfileString("Data", loadedNumber, "", sData, Len(sData), URL1)="" Then
     List1.AddItem GetPrivateProfileString("Data", loadedNumber, "", sData, Len(sData), URL1) 
     loadedNumber = loadedNumber + 1
     GoTo NextOne
End if
End Sub

Here is an easy example using INI files that may help you to understand better.

Public Declare Function GetPrivateProfileString _
Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetPrivateProfileStringA" (ByVal _
lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpKeyName As String, _
ByVal lpDefault As String, ByVal lpReturnedString As _
String, ByVal nSize As Long, ByVal lpFileName As String) As _
Long

Public Declare Function WritePrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" Alias "WritePrivateProfileStringA" (ByVal _
lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpKeyName As Any, ByVal _
lpString As Any, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long


Public Function ReadINI(strsection As String, strkey As String, strfullpath As String) As String
   Dim strbuffer As String
   Let strbuffer$ = String$(750, Chr$(0&))
   Let ReadINI$ = Left$(strbuffer$, GetPrivateProfileString(strsection$, ByVal LCase$(strkey$), "", strbuffer, Len(strbuffer), strfullpath$))
End Function


Public Sub WriteINI(strsection As String, strkey As String, strkeyvalue As String, strfullpath As String)
    Call WritePrivateProfileString(strsection$, UCase$(strkey$), strkeyvalue$, strfullpath$)
End Sub



Usage

'Write
Call WriteINI("Value.ini", "MyValue", "TheValue", "C:\Value.ini")

'Read
x = ReadINI"Value.ini", "MyValue", "C:\Value.ini")
Msgbox x

[PRIVATE1]

This is in case you where discourged from the INI file

Sub ListBoxLoad(File As String, ListBox As ListBox)
'USAGE: LOADLIST(LIST1,"STUFF.LST")
'THAT WILL LOAD THE CONTENTS OF STUFF.LST
On Error Resume Next
Dim free%, G$
free = FreeFile
ListBox.Clear
Open File For Input As #free
Do Until EOF(free)
Line Input #free, G$
ListBox.AddItem G$
Loop
Close free
End Sub

Public Sub ListBoxSave(File As String, List As ListBox)
On Error Resume Next
Dim free%
free = FreeFile
Dim SaveList As Long
Open File For Output As #free
For SaveList& = 0 To List.ListCount - 1
Print #free, List.List(SaveList&)
Next SaveList&
Close #free
Finish:
End Sub

That just writes it to any file name you want .

[Mad Compie]

In fact, the class file is not as difficult as it seems.
My first impression was also something like yours. But if you look more closer to the code, it's quite simple to do some INI operations.
You could start with declaring an instance of the class, like:

Option Explicit
  Dim clsINI     As New CINIFile
  
Private Sub Form_Load()
  clsINI.File = "Win.INI"
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Resize()
  Dim Sections() As String
  Dim i          As Integer
  
  Erase Sections
  Me.Cls
  
  clsINI.EnumSections Sections
  
  For i = 0 To UBound(Sections)
    Me.Print Sections(i)
  Next i
End Sub

[Harddisk]

Originally posted by pro2
If the keyname in the INI fil is number :
[data]
1=data1
2=data2
3=data3

it,s easy :

Declare Function GetPrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetPrivateProfileStringA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpKeyName As String, ByVal lpDefault As String, ByVal lpReturnedString As String, ByVal nSize As Long, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long
'Declare Function WritePrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" Alias "WritePrivateProfileStringA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpKeyName As String, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long


Sub loadLIST ()
Dim loadedNumber As Integer
Dim URL1 As String

loadedNumber=1
URL1= "c:\windows\win.ini" ' Path of the ini file

NextOne:

If Not GetPrivateProfileString("Data", loadedNumber, "", sData, Len(sData), URL1)="" Then
     List1.AddItem GetPrivateProfileString("Data", loadedNumber, "", sData, Len(sData), URL1) 
     loadedNumber = loadedNumber + 1
     GoTo NextOne
End if
End Sub

But this wasn't able to retrieve the rest of the keys, if this occur
1=key1
2=
3=key3

where key no 2 is blank.

[Peter Swinkels]

Does this help?

To load:

listbox.Clear
Open INIfile For Input as 1
 Do Until Eof(1)
  Line Input #1, Text$
  listbox.AddItem Text$
 Loop
Close 1

To save:

Open INIfile For Output as 1
 For LineNr  = 0 to listbox.ListCount - 1
  Print #1, listbox.List(LineNr)
 Next LineNr
Close 1

If this is not what you mean, you could look up these API functions:

GetPrivateProfileInt
GetPrivateProfileString
GetProfileInt
GetProfileString
WritePrivateProfileString
WriteProfileString

[pro2]

Originally posted by Harddisk
But this wasn't able to retrieve the rest of the keys, if this occur
1=key1
2=
3=key3

where key no 2 is blank.

well, you can try to have a key that contain the numbers of item that you want to load in your list, and then, you read this key and make a loop to load everything. with this method, you don't have to validate if the key is empty to end the loading process.


hope this help, if you need a code example, drop me an e-mail at disco_boul****@email.com

see ya