[ALMOST SOLVED] Text-Based Settings

[Fleamonji]

I want to make a program that uses text files (or whatever I choose the extension to be) for settings. I have an example from someone's SVN updater for a game. The following is in customaddons.ini. I want to be able to do something similar.

LuaMenu
http://luastoned.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/luamenu/
LuaMenu

All pointers/help appreciated .

[vistar86]

so you would like to read a file from the net and get contents into a string/textbox/listview or what?

whats in the text files? settings for what? oyu'll have to be a bit more clear

[Fleamonji]

so you would like to read a file from the net and get contents into a string/textbox/listview or what?

whats in the text files? settings for what? oyu'll have to be a bit more clear

I want to store settings like "Previous Version", "Last Update Date", "Steam folder path", "Steam Username". I need to be able to read them from within the program, and display them.

EDIT: And I don't want to use My.Settings

[jmcilhinney]

We can't tell you how to do "whatever you choose". You have to choose something first and then we can tell you how to do it. First up, why don't you want to use My.Settings? There may well be a legitimate reason but many have misguidedly said the same before. If you explain FULLY your intent then we know we won;t be wasting our time and yours reinventing the wheel. Assuming that My.Settings is not the way to go, what EXACTLY do you want to do instead? Do you want to use an INI file? An XML file? A text file of your own format? Something else?

[Grimfort]

You don't have to use My.Settings but you can use the same format xml file and put it anywhere you want.

[MarMan]

I've always used *.ini files since VB3. They are easy to use and easy to read (both humans and computers). XML is good too, but it isn't easy to read and edit for non-programmers using our code. Does anyone else have any more modern approaches?

The draw backs to using *.ini files is microsoft doesn't want us to use them anymore, so sooner or later they may not work anymore with out writing our own access methods.

API declares

    Private Declare Function GetPrivateProfileString _
       Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetPrivateProfileStringA" ( _
       ByVal lpSectionName As String, _
       ByVal lpKeyName As String, _
       ByVal lpDefault As String, _
       ByVal lpbuffurnedString As String, _
       ByVal nBuffSize As Integer, _
       ByVal lpFileName As String) As Integer

    Private Declare Function WritePrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" _
        Alias "WritePrivateProfileStringA" ( _
        ByVal lpApplicationName As String, _
        ByVal lpKeyName As String, _
        ByVal lpString As String, _
        ByVal lpFileName As String) As Integer

Code exampes:
Writing

                WritePrivateProfileString(strSection, strKey, strValue, strIniFilePath)

For these values:strSection = "Setting", strKey = "MainTopLeft", strValue = 120, strIniFilePath = "C:\Program Files\TestApp.ini" will produce:

[Settings]
MainTopLeft=120


Reading (have this wrapped in a nice function

    Private Function GetValueForKey(ByVal strSection As String, ByVal strKey As String, Optional ByRef strDefault As String = vbNullString) As String
        '*****************************************************************************************
        '* PURPOSE:    Returns a value for a specific key from an ini file.                      *
        '*****************************************************************************************
        '* PARAMETERS: strSection - The section name to get a key from.                          *
        '*             strKey     - The key to get the value for.                                *
        '*             strDefault - The default to use if the value or key is not found.         *
        '*****************************************************************************************
        '* RETURNS:    A value associated with a specific key.                                   *
        '*****************************************************************************************
        Dim rc As Integer
        Dim strBuffer As String


        strBuffer = Space(mconBufferSize)'mconBufferSize is the maximum size of the data you expect to receive + 1

        rc = GetPrivateProfileString(strSection, strKey, strDefault, _
            strBuffer, Len(strBuffer), mstrIniFilePath)
        If rc Then
            GetValueForKey = Microsoft.VisualBasic.Left(strBuffer, rc)
        Else
            GetValueForKey = vbNullString
        End If

    End Function

[Fleamonji]

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed <3.

EDIT: I've never been able to get XML working, so I'll start with this. And to answer whoever above, I am going to be adding a feature to the program that will allow users to add an IP:Port and Name to a list, and get the server info/connect to it too. My.Settings wouldn't be useful for that.

strBuffer = Space(mconBufferSize) 'mconBufferSize is the maximum size of the data you expect to receive + 1

        rc = GetPrivateProfileString(strSection, strKey, strDefault, _
            strBuffer, Len(strBuffer), mstrIniFilePath)

It's complaining about mconBufferSize and mstrIniFilePath not being declared or being inaccessible.

[Grimfort]

My.Settings wouldn't be useful for that.

My.Settings is just a simple overlay to allow you to quickly read/write simple datatypes. You can very simply code a configurationmanager to an XML file to give you far more capability then an ini file ever could.

[MarMan]

mconBufferSize is the maximum string length.
mstrIniFilePath is the file path.

You will have to supply your own values there.

[Grimfort]

Just for fun I made a little xml reader to show what you can do with xml

Private Class clsServerInfo
		Public ServerName As String
		Public ServerIP As String
		Public Setting1 As Integer

		Public Sub ShowDetails()
			MsgBox("We have " & ServerName & " on " & ServerIP & " with setttings " & Setting1.ToString)
		End Sub
	End Class

	Private strFileName As String = "c:\myfile.xml"

	Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

		ListServers()

		Dim strEntry As String = InputBox("Enter the name of a server", , "test")
		WriteServerDetails(New clsServerInfo() With {.ServerName = strEntry, .ServerIP = "56.12.12.1", .Setting1 = 45})
		ReadServerDetails(strEntry).ShowDetails()
		WriteServerDetails(New clsServerInfo() With {.ServerName = strEntry, .ServerIP = "0.0.12.1", .Setting1 = 55})
		ReadServerDetails(strEntry).ShowDetails()

	End Sub

	Private Sub ListServers()

		Dim objXMLFile As New Xml.XmlDocument

		If IO.File.Exists(strFileName) Then
			objXMLFile.Load(strFileName)
		End If

		Dim objSettings As Xml.XmlNode = objXMLFile.SelectSingleNode("Settings")
		If objSettings Is Nothing Then
			objSettings = objXMLFile.AppendChild(objXMLFile.CreateElement("Settings"))
		End If

		Dim strItems As String = ""
		For Each objEntry As Xml.XmlNode In objSettings.ChildNodes
			strItems &= objEntry.Name & vbNewLine
		Next
		If strItems = String.Empty Then
			MsgBox("No servers found")
		Else
			MsgBox("Found: " & vbNewLine & strItems)
		End If


	End Sub

	Private Sub WriteServerDetails(ByVal ServerDetails As clsServerInfo)

		Dim objXMLFile As New Xml.XmlDocument

		If IO.File.Exists(strFileName) Then
			objXMLFile.Load(strFileName)
		End If

		Dim objSettings As Xml.XmlNode = objXMLFile.SelectSingleNode("Settings")
		If objSettings Is Nothing Then
			objSettings = objXMLFile.AppendChild(objXMLFile.CreateElement("Settings"))
		End If

		'Check if the xmlfile already has this entry
		Dim objXMLNode As Xml.XmlNode = objSettings.SelectSingleNode(ServerDetails.ServerName)
		If objXMLNode Is Nothing Then
			objXMLNode = objXMLFile.CreateElement(ServerDetails.ServerName)
			objXMLNode.AppendChild(objXMLFile.CreateElement("ServerIP")).InnerText = ServerDetails.ServerIP
			objXMLNode.AppendChild(objXMLFile.CreateElement("Setting1")).InnerText = ServerDetails.Setting1.ToString
			objSettings.AppendChild(objXMLNode)
		Else
			objXMLNode.SelectSingleNode("ServerIP").InnerText = ServerDetails.ServerIP
			objXMLNode.SelectSingleNode("Setting1").InnerText = ServerDetails.Setting1.ToString
		End If

		objXMLFile.Save(strFileName)

	End Sub

	Private Function ReadServerDetails(ByVal ServerName As String) As clsServerInfo

		Dim objXMLFile As New Xml.XmlDocument

		If IO.File.Exists(strFileName) Then
			objXMLFile.Load(strFileName)
		End If

		Dim objSettings As Xml.XmlNode = objXMLFile.SelectSingleNode("Settings")
		If objSettings Is Nothing Then
			objSettings = objXMLFile.AppendChild(objXMLFile.CreateElement("Settings"))
		End If

		Dim objXMLNode As Xml.XmlNode = objSettings.SelectSingleNode(ServerName)
		If Not objXMLNode Is Nothing Then
			Dim objResult As New clsServerInfo
			objResult.ServerName = ServerName
			objResult.ServerIP = objXMLNode.SelectSingleNode("ServerIP").InnerText
			objResult.Setting1 = CInt(objXMLNode.SelectSingleNode("Setting1").InnerText)
			Return objResult
		End If

	End Function

[techgnome]

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed <3.

EDIT: I've never been able to get XML working, so I'll start with this. And to answer whoever above, I am going to be adding a feature to the program that will allow users to add an IP:Port and Name to a list, and get the server info/connect to it too. My.Settings wouldn't be useful for that.

strBuffer = Space(mconBufferSize) 'mconBufferSize is the maximum size of the data you expect to receive + 1

        rc = GetPrivateProfileString(strSection, strKey, strDefault, _
            strBuffer, Len(strBuffer), mstrIniFilePath)

It's complaining about mconBufferSize and mstrIniFilePath not being declared or being inaccessible.

Why not?


Also... you could just serialize to/from xml ... might be a bit saner and easier that dealing with the XML directly.

-tg