save settings

[marvinklein]

i have a settings window in my app where the user can change some properties like background color...
what is the best way to save these so they get loaded the next time i start the app? there are about 50 settings, most are boolean or integers. nothing complicated?
should i use the registry, or create a settings.txt file or ...?
any recommendations as to what is most professional? thanks...

[Mike Hildner]

I know this has been discussed around here before - so maybe search around to find various ways to do it.

Personally I like creating a properties class. This contains all the stuff I want to persist. Then I use XML serialization and deserialization on the properties object.

Works just fine, easy to do and easy to edit the xml file.

[marvinklein]

XML serialization and deserialization

what is that?
can you explain what you're talking about or send me to somewhere where i can learn?

[Mike Hildner]

Sure, but you may want to explore other options as well. I just happen to like this way, it doesn't mean there aren't better ways to do it.

Serialization is a big subect, in this case we're persisting an object to a file, then deserializing the file back into an object.

Here's my properties class:

Public Class SleuthNCICServiceProperties
    ' The server's address.
    Public serverAddress As String
 
    ' The server's port.
    Public serverPort As Integer
 
    ' The listening port.
    Public listenPort As Integer
 
    ' Lots of decisions in the server application
    ' are based upon the stateUS. i.e. NM, CO, etc.
    Public stateUS As String
 
    Public sendInitialRegisterString As Boolean
    Public initialRegisterORI As String
 
    Public sendHeartbeat As Boolean
    Public heartbeatInterval As Integer
    Public heartbeatCharacter As Integer
End Class

This is how I dim my object in a different class:

Public Class SleuthNCICService
    Inherits System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase
 
    ' Configuration properties.
    Public Shared properties As New SleuthNCICServiceProperties
.
.
.

I do this at the start of the application. It's an example of serialization in both directions:

Private Sub ReadProperties()
        Dim fileName As String = Application.StartupPath & "\Sleuth-NCIC-Service-properties.xml"
        Dim mySerializer As XmlSerializer = New XmlSerializer(GetType(SleuthNCICServiceProperties))
 
        'A first time thing only - if the properties file does not
        'exist, create a default one.
        If Not File.Exists(fileName) Then
            properties.serverAddress = "localhost"
            properties.serverPort = 4243
            properties.listenPort = 4242
            properties.stateUS = "NM"
            properties.sendInitialRegisterString = True
            properties.initialRegisterORI = "NM1234567"
            properties.sendHeartbeat = True
            properties.heartbeatInterval = 60000
            properties.heartbeatCharacter = 5
 
            Try
                Dim myWriter As StreamWriter = New StreamWriter(fileName)
                mySerializer.Serialize(myWriter, properties)
                myWriter.Close()
            Catch ex As Exception
                Logger.Log("E", Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(ex.ToString))
            End Try
        End If
 
        'Deserialize the xml file into a properties object
        Try
            Dim myFileStream As FileStream = New FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Open)
            properties = CType(mySerializer.Deserialize(myFileStream), SleuthNCICServiceProperties)
            myFileStream.Close()
        Catch ex As Exception
            Logger.Log("E", Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(ex.ToString))
        End Try
    End Sub ' ReadProperties()

The xml file looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SleuthNCICServiceProperties xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <serverAddress>127.0.0.1</serverAddress>
  <serverPort>4243</serverPort>
  <listenPort>4242</listenPort>
  <stateUS>NM</stateUS>
  <sendInitialRegisterString>true</sendInitialRegisterString>
  <initialRegisterORI>NM0260701</initialRegisterORI>
  <sendHeartbeat>true</sendHeartbeat>
  <heartbeatInterval>60000</heartbeatInterval>
  <heartbeatCharacter>5</heartbeatCharacter>
</SleuthNCICServiceProperties>

Then in your code, you use the class members:

ReadProperties()
        If properties.sendHeartbeat Then
            TimerKeepAlive.Interval = properties.heartbeatInterval
            TimerKeepAlive.Enabled = True
        End If

[marvinklein]

thanks a lot. i'll digest and try all of this tomorrow. i'm sure i'll have some more questions then.

thanks again.

[Pirate]

Or use something like this http://www.codeproject.com/cs/miscctrl/RealPosition.asp