Tip Of The Day... Anyone do this in .Net yet?

[hellswraith]

Hello all. I was wondering if anyone has incorporated a tip of the day type thing for your .Net application. I am just getting started on it, and was wondering if anyone had some code that they would post if they have done it. I figured why re invent the wheel if someone else has already done it.

Even if you don't have code, but you have done it before, describe what you did and what worked best for you. (IE, did you use a DB, or just a text file? Did your users like it?)

[Edneeis]

Although as a user I usually shut these type of things off, sometimes they are helpful. I used an xml and loaded it into a dataset at runtime to handle the actual tip text. I just get a random row and display it. I like that labels can have images now so its easy to display the tip icon in the tip heading.

[hellswraith]

I already made up a way to do this easily. I was going to do an XML file, but to tell you the truth, I don't know as much about XML and datasets as I should. So I ended up just using a text file, and read in the lines. I keep track of which tip was shown last in the registry so I get the next tip automatically.

I generally turn off the tip of the day thing also, but I needed it to convey something to users the first time they load the app. So it is a way to get a tip to the users that they are guarenteed to see at least once. Plus, I am truly trying to add value to it. I am putting more advanced stuff for the tip of the day, things that are generally not used with my app, but things that would be used if they were more known to the user.

If you have some time (or code), I would appreciate it if you could show me how to set up a tip of the day xml file, then read it into a dataset and actually display it to the user (doesn't have to be fancy, just enough for me to get started on). I really do NEED to know more about this. Thanks for your time if you do it, and don't sweat it if you don't want to.

[Edneeis]

Sure no problem I didn't use xml much with vb6 but in .net it is REALLY easy so now I use it for small amounts of data like this. Here is the tip of the day part. It randomly picks a tip to show and does the same on the 'next tip' button. It really needs a way of checking the random number to make sure it isn't the same as the last one picked and it doesn't actually save the 'Show at start up' option anywhere.

[Slow_Learner]

*swipes sample* thanks d00d!

[hellswraith]

Thanks Edneeis, appreciate it.