[RESOLVED] application settings

[Lord Orwell]

evidently i didn't know what i was doing. I am working on a simple game and wanted to save the high score in application settings. Research upon failure has shown that user is read/write but the program doesn't store it between runs. What am i missing?

[jmcilhinney]

Research upon failure has shown that user is read/write but the program doesn't store it between runs.

Yes it does, which is the whole point. User-scoped settings have their default values stored in the app config file and their current values stored in a user config file stored under each user's personal folder. If you open the settings page of the project properties and click the Synchronize button, that will prompt you to delete any user config file(s) that have been created while debugging so you will use the default value again on the next run. Try it and see if there is a file to delete.

You should probably tell us exactly what you're doing and exactly what happens.

[Lord Orwell]

i actually have the entire project uploaded here:
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=524940
I browsed the my.settings properties and actually solved this one myself. I needed to call my.settings.save which i was not aware existed since this is my first attempt at using the settings.
Thanks for your info, it led me in the right direction.

[jmcilhinney]

I needed to call my.settings.save

In theory, that's not the case. By default, Save is called implicitly when the application shuts down. There's a check box in the project properties to change that behaviour. You should make sure that that box is checked. If it is then you shouldn't need to call Save yourself. If you do, that suggests to me that your application is not shutting down correctly. An unhandled exception would cause that, as too would stopping the debugger directly rather than exiting the app normally.

[Lord Orwell]

In theory, that's not the case. By default, Save is called implicitly when the application shuts down. There's a check box in the project properties to change that behaviour. You should make sure that that box is checked. If it is then you shouldn't need to call Save yourself. If you do, that suggests to me that your application is not shutting down correctly. An unhandled exception would cause that, as too would stopping the debugger directly rather than exiting the app normally.

i was doing a lot of improper shutting down. However implicitly saving it actually is more of what i wanted anyway as i wanted it saved immediately.

I was unable to find the checkbox.

[jmcilhinney]

However implicitly saving it actually is more of what i wanted anyway as i wanted it saved immediately.

You mean "explicitly".

I was unable to find the checkbox.

Really? How hard did you look? It's on the Application, i.e. first, page of the project properties and it's caption is "Save My.Settings on Shutdown".

[Lord Orwell]

ok i found it. It was checked. So i don't know what the issue was, except that i almost always was shutting it down by closing it in the ide.

[jmcilhinney]

ok i found it. It was checked. So i don't know what the issue was, except that i almost always was shutting it down by closing it in the ide.

That would be the issue then. If you want to satisfy your curiosity, check the box and don't call Save, then exit the application normally. You should find that the setting(s) is persisted.

The only time that saving explicitly would be advantageous is if the OS shuts down without warning, e.g. power failure. Even an unhandled exception shouldn't be an issue because you should be handling the UnhandledException event, so the app will still shut down normally and settings will be saved.