Is there a better way to do this?

[SwaggerDownPatricia]

Hello, I'm creating a program which will show you the statistics of champion's in a game called "League of Legends."

I have every champion's icon and background image as an embedded resource in my program.

Whenever someone selects a champion from the combo box in my program, I want it to show that champion's background image and icon in the form.

This is the code for ONE champion called "Aatrox."

Imports System.Reflection
Imports System.IO

Public Class Form1

    Dim championBackground, championIcon As Stream

    Private Sub ComboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles ComboBox1.TextChanged
        If ComboBox1.Text.Equals("Aatrox", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase) Then

            championBackground = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream("LoLBuddy.Aatrox_Background.jpg")
            championIcon = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream("LoLBuddy.Aatrox_Icon.png")
            BackgroundImage = New Bitmap(championBackground)
            PictureBox1.Image = New Bitmap(championIcon)

        End If
    End Sub
End Class

This is the code if I add a champion called "Ahri."

Imports System.Reflection
Imports System.IO

Public Class Form1

    Dim championBackground, championIcon As Stream

    Private Sub ComboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles ComboBox1.TextChanged
        If ComboBox1.Text.Equals("Aatrox", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase) Then

            championBackground = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream("LoLBuddy.Aatrox_Background.jpg")
            championIcon = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream("LoLBuddy.Aatrox_Icon.png")
            BackgroundImage = New Bitmap(championBackground)
            PictureBox1.Image = New Bitmap(championIcon)

        ElseIf ComboBox1.Text.Equals("Ahri", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase) Then

            championBackground = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream("LoLBuddy.Ahri_Background.jpg")
            championIcon = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream("LoLBuddy.Ahri_Icon.png")
            BackgroundImage = New Bitmap(championBackground)
            PictureBox1.Image = New Bitmap(championIcon)

        End If
    End Sub
End Class

It seems like a lot of code every time I want to support a new champion. There are 123 champions in the game, so I would have a LOT of lines just to support all the champions.

Is there a better way to do this?

[JuggaloBrotha]

Sounds like you could use a database (an access one would be fine) where you store the name in a column, the background as blob in another column, and the pic in another blob.. then you can use a query to select the names into the combobox, then when the user selects one you can simply set the background and that picturebox to the images from the same row in the database. Would be a few lines of code to do, but you wont have to code the names in for each person.
You'll need to make a utility app to insert/edit/delete characters from the database though, a minor thing to make considering.

[Toph]

Sounds like you could use a database (an access one would be fine) where you store the name in a column, the background as blob in another column, and the pic in another blob.. then you can use a query to select the names into the combobox, then when the user selects one you can simply set the background and that picturebox to the images from the same row in the database. Would be a few lines of code to do, but you wont have to code the names in for each person.
You'll need to make a utility app to insert/edit/delete characters from the database though, a minor thing to make considering.

Using a blob/picture data structure to store images on a database can be sluggish when you're dealing with large amounts of requests. It's usually better to store the image location as a string and read that, you get the idea. But I agree with you though, a database is well suited for this.

[PaulLaverick]

If all the champions are hardcoded, and all the image file names are the same format as you have shown:

LoLBuddy.Aatrox_Background.jpg
LoLBuddy.Ahri_Background.jpg

You could:

Dim FileName as String = "LoLBuddy." & ComboBox1.Text & "_Background.jpg"

Where ComboBox1.Text is "Aatrox" or "Ahri" etc...

I would of course, check the file actually exists before using, to avoid a crash

Paul

[Toph]

If all the champions are hardcoded, and all the image file names are the same format as you have shown:

LoLBuddy.Aatrox_Background.jpg
LoLBuddy.Ahri_Background.jpg

You could:

Dim FileName as String = "LoLBuddy." & ComboBox1.Text & "_Background.jpg"

Where ComboBox1.Text is "Aatrox" or "Ahri" etc...

I would of course, check the file actually exists before using, to avoid a crash

Paul

Have fun doing that with 123 champions. 2 images per person. A Database is the way this should be done, no doubt about it.

[kebo]

For only 123 entries, I would look at a a file rather than a database proper. If there were 1,000's then yea a database for sure, but with only a couple hundred, you could easily create a datatable and send it to xml pretty fast using the datatable.WriteXML method. Either way would work, but using a an xml table relieves the need for the database.

[Toph]

Are XML that good? Loads of people seem to recommend them. Might look into it soon.

[kebo]

Are XML that good? Loads of people seem to recommend them. Might look into it soon.

It's not that xml is good, it's just a file format. What makes it work for the op's app is the data table's read/write XML methods. Because there are only a couple of hundred items the op is dealing with, it would be best to just load the entire table into memory rather than carry a database connection around. Using the data table method would also make portability for the app much easier.

[PaulLaverick]

Have fun doing that with 123 champions. 2 images per person. A Database is the way this should be done, no doubt about it.

I must not of been clear in my post. This would work:

Public Class Form1

    Dim championBackground, championIcon As Stream

    Private Sub ComboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles ComboBox1.TextChanged
        
            championBackground = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream("LoLBuddy." & ComboBox1.Text & "_Background.jpg")
            championIcon = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream("LoLBuddy." & ComboBox1.Text & "_Icon.png")
            BackgroundImage = New Bitmap(championBackground)
            PictureBox1.Image = New Bitmap(championIcon)

      End Sub
End Class

No need for databases, they already have a combobox, so quite straightforward...

Unless of course, the combobox needs populating, then a basic text file with all the names in loaded on startup, add to the combobox, and the photo/icons file names can be automatically created like above? As long as none of the champion names have special chars in that can't be used in filenames... Then it gets more complicated!

[JuggaloBrotha]

For only 123 entries, I would look at a a file rather than a database proper. If there were 1,000's then yea a database for sure, but with only a couple hundred, you could easily create a datatable and send it to xml pretty fast using the datatable.WriteXML method. Either way would work, but using a an xml table relieves the need for the database.

The only issue with this is the xml file would be unbarebly huge in size due to xml being a text file and images as text is very bloated. The database would store the images in a slightly compressed fashion which has speed gains that xml simply wont have.
Plus the complexity of using a DB for this (even an Access database) is the same as coding for xml use, so might as well just use a DB and have the ability to query the database using sql instead of xml parsing.

[jayinthe813]

The only issue with this is the xml file would be unbarebly huge in size due to xml being a text file and images as text is very bloated. The database would store the images in a slightly compressed fashion which has speed gains that xml simply wont have.
Plus the complexity of using a DB for this (even an Access database) is the same as coding for xml use, so might as well just use a DB and have the ability to query the database using sql instead of xml parsing.

I agree, the complexity of XML seems a bit much for this, but honestly I think so does a database. Is there an issue with storing the images in the project's resource files? Otherwise OP could keep them as files in the App Data folder.

[kebo]

The only issue with this is the xml file would be unbarebly huge in size due to xml being a text file and images as text is very bloated. The database would store the images in a slightly compressed fashion which has speed gains that xml simply wont have.
Plus the complexity of using a DB for this (even an Access database) is the same as coding for xml use, so might as well just use a DB and have the ability to query the database using sql instead of xml parsing.

Yea, I don't think I would be putting the images in the xml, nor would I be using the xml namespace. I was thinking something more like this...

  Private Sub Form1_Shown(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Shown

        Call makeTable()
        Call getTable()

    End Sub

    'assume the table is in the same directory as the images
    Dim xmlTablePath As String = "m:\test\table.xml"
    Dim imagePath As String = IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(xmlTablePath)

    Private Sub makeTable()

        Dim dT As New DataTable("thisTable")
        dT.Columns.Add(New DataColumn("name", GetType(String)))
        dT.Columns.Add(New DataColumn("imagePath", GetType(String)))
        dT.Columns.Add(New DataColumn("iconPath", GetType(String)))

        dT.PrimaryKey = {dT.Columns(0)}

        'add the data so the image path as icon path are relative filenames
        dT.Rows.Add({"first", "images\first.jpg", "icons\first.jpg"})
        dT.Rows.Add({"second", "images\second.jpg", "icons\second.jpg"})
        dT.Rows.Add({"third", "images\third.jpg", "icons\third.jpg"})
        dT.Rows.Add({"fourth", "images\fourth.jpg", "icons\fourth.jpg"})

        'save the table to xml

        Dim fpath As String = xmlTablePath
        dT.WriteXml(xmlTablePath, XmlWriteMode.WriteSchema)

    End Sub


    Dim dT As DataTable = Nothing

    Private Sub getTable()

        dT = New DataTable
        dT.ReadXml(xmlTablePath)

        'bind to the combo box
        ComboBox1.DataSource = dT

        ComboBox1.DisplayMember = "name"
        ComboBox1.ValueMember = "name"


    End Sub

    Private Sub ComboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles ComboBox1.SelectedIndexChanged

        If ComboBox1.SelectedItem IsNot Nothing Then

            Dim name As String = ComboBox1.SelectedValue.ToString
            Dim row As DataRow = dT.Rows.Find(name)

            If row IsNot Nothing Then

                Dim thisImagePath As String = IO.Path.Combine(imagePath, row("imagePath").ToString)
                Dim thisIconPath As String = IO.Path.Combine(imagePath, row("iconPath").ToString)

                Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder
                sb.AppendLine(name)
                sb.AppendLine(thisImagePath)
                sb.AppendLine(thisIconPath)
                MessageBox.Show(sb.ToString)


            End If



        End If



    End Sub

Because the op is only dealing with a couple hundred items, loading and saving the table is too bad.