|
web
newsgroups
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Saving Settings in VB.NETI am trying to find a VB.NET method that will allow me to save and read an application's settings in a separate file located on any drive, any folder. I have found a couple of methods for doing this, but they are (in my opinion) more complicated than I require. I found a method that uses IsolatedStorageFile and IsolatedStorageFileStream, which works correctly. That is, it stores the settings in XML format to a file located here: "C:\Documents and Settings\userid\Local Settings\Application Data\IsolatedStorage". While this method works, the Isolated Storage file does not allow you to specify a file location other than this folder. As I mentioned, I need to be able to specify a file location elsewhere (even on another drive). There HAS to be a method to save simple settings & retrieve them without loading the entire file, then searching through all of it for my one setting. When I say simple settings, I mean "File1=text.txt, Color=234, FileDL = True". I have tried several methods and they are all too complicated to mention here. I would GREATLY appreciate any suggestions of how to do this simply. Thank you. Reference material: http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/04/AdvancedBasics/default.aspx Hi Kirk,
The reason why the IsolatedStorageFile is placed in that specific location is because any user, even one with a least privledged account, has access to that folder. If you read\write to another location, you have to make sure the user has the proper security permissions. Another easy place to put application settings is by creating an App.config file in your project. When you compile the project, the config file is named after your application name (appname.exe.config). However this file is always located in the same place as the executable and there are only methods for easy reading of the settings. To create the app.config file: Select Project -> Add New Item -> Application Configuration File. You'll then want to add your key/value pairs to the file: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <configuration> <add key="MyKey1" value="My value 1" /> <add key="AnotherKey2" value="Another value 2" /> </configuration> From your code you can read the settings like so: Dim mySetting As String = Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings("MyKey1") However, if you want to write to the file, you'll have to do that manually. Take a look here for info on how to do that: http://ryanfarley.com/blog/archive/2004/07/13/879.aspx#ggviewer-offsite-nav-9056600 HTH, -B Show quoteHide quote "Kirk" <lok***@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:1113239606.349993.31320@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com... > Hello, > > I am trying to find a VB.NET method that will allow me to save and read > an application's settings in a separate file located on any drive, > any folder. I have found a couple of methods for doing this, but they > are (in my opinion) more complicated than I require. > > I found a method that uses IsolatedStorageFile and > IsolatedStorageFileStream, which works correctly. That is, it stores > the settings in XML format to a file located here: "C:\Documents and > Settings\userid\Local Settings\Application Data\IsolatedStorage". > While this method works, the Isolated Storage file does not allow you > to specify a file location other than this folder. As I mentioned, I > need to be able to specify a file location elsewhere (even on another > drive). > > There HAS to be a method to save simple settings & retrieve them > without loading the entire file, then searching through all of it for > my one setting. When I say simple settings, I mean "File1=text.txt, > Color=234, FileDL = True". > > I have tried several methods and they are all too complicated to > mention here. I would GREATLY appreciate any suggestions of how to do > this simply. > Thank you. > > Reference material: > http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/04/AdvancedBasics/default.aspx > Set up a Class containing all your start-up information as properties and
make sure the class is serializable. You can then serialize it to a file located anywhere you want then de-serialize from the file on start-up of your appliciation. Note however that this requires that you know where the file is stored as you will have to hard code the path into your appliciation. Show quoteHide quote "Kirk" wrote: > Hello, > > I am trying to find a VB.NET method that will allow me to save and read > an application's settings in a separate file located on any drive, > any folder. I have found a couple of methods for doing this, but they > are (in my opinion) more complicated than I require. > > I found a method that uses IsolatedStorageFile and > IsolatedStorageFileStream, which works correctly. That is, it stores > the settings in XML format to a file located here: "C:\Documents and > Settings\userid\Local Settings\Application Data\IsolatedStorage". > While this method works, the Isolated Storage file does not allow you > to specify a file location other than this folder. As I mentioned, I > need to be able to specify a file location elsewhere (even on another > drive). > > There HAS to be a method to save simple settings & retrieve them > without loading the entire file, then searching through all of it for > my one setting. When I say simple settings, I mean "File1=text.txt, > Color=234, FileDL = True". > > I have tried several methods and they are all too complicated to > mention here. I would GREATLY appreciate any suggestions of how to do > this simply. > Thank you. > > Reference material: > http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/04/AdvancedBasics/default.aspx > > Dennis,
Thank you for your reply - it sounds like my best option. I appreciate the other people who replied, unfortunately, the App.Config & Registry solutions will NOT work for me, as I need something that will read settings NOT in a fixed location (as I mentioned in my post). Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of experience with creating a serializable class or serializing it to a file. I tried researching this in the .NET help file, but could not get their example to work properly. I know I am asking a lot, but could you please post some sample code or a link to somewhere an example is shown? I would GREATLY appreciate it. Thanks in advance! I've recently tackled this problem and the solution was a blend of XML
serialization with options to write to Isolated Storage locations or on a machine with greater access privleges -- write to a location specified by the user. I created a manager class to allow the user to change and update configurations setting from main application and a serializer/deserlializer class to handle the reading/writing to file. Now, to counter the event that the settings are wiped, a default settings file is stored in the application as a resource, which the application will read should the settings file be missing/corrupted/not present. This has worked well for me on various accounts with liberal, conservative, and limited access to file storage. The below is an example of serializing and deserializing a structure to a
memorystream which you could then save to a file and read from a file. You should also be able to do this with a Class's properties that is declared as serializable. 'Sturcture to be Serialized <Serializable()> Public Structure TestSerialize Dim i As Integer Dim a As String Dim b As Byte() End Structure sub Main 'Set t as the input structure and ot as the output structure (both can be the same if you wish) Dim t As TestSerialize Dim ot As TestSerialize 'Create a BinaryFormatter to serialize the structure and a memory stream to save it to Dim formatter As New BinaryFormatter Dim s As New MemoryStream 'Put some values into the structure Dim i As Integer t.i = 125 t.a = "This is a test of Serialilzing a structure" t.b = New Byte() {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25} 'Serialize the structure t to memorystream s formatter.Serialize(s, t) 'Deserialize the memorystream into the new structure ot s.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin) ot = formatter.Deserialize(s) i = 0 End Sub Show quoteHide quote "Kirk" wrote: > Dennis, > > Thank you for your reply - it sounds like my best option. I appreciate > the other people who replied, unfortunately, the App.Config & Registry > solutions will NOT work for me, as I need something that will read > settings NOT in a fixed location (as I mentioned in my post). > > Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of experience with creating a > serializable class or serializing it to a file. I tried researching > this in the .NET help file, but could not get their example to work > properly. I know I am asking a lot, but could you please post some > sample code or a link to somewhere an example is shown? I would > GREATLY appreciate it. > Thanks in advance! > > Kirk,
You could also save your settings in the Registry. Look at SaveSetting(), GetSetting() etc. They write to CurrentUser\VB and VBA Program Settings\"Application Name"\ You can also build up a simple class to read or write to any Registry Key (where you have permissions). Doug Show quoteHide quote "Kirk" <lok***@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:1113239606.349993.31320@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com... > Hello, > > I am trying to find a VB.NET method that will allow me to save and read > an application's settings in a separate file located on any drive, > any folder. I have found a couple of methods for doing this, but they > are (in my opinion) more complicated than I require. > > I found a method that uses IsolatedStorageFile and > IsolatedStorageFileStream, which works correctly. That is, it stores > the settings in XML format to a file located here: "C:\Documents and > Settings\userid\Local Settings\Application Data\IsolatedStorage". > While this method works, the Isolated Storage file does not allow you > to specify a file location other than this folder. As I mentioned, I > need to be able to specify a file location elsewhere (even on another > drive). > > There HAS to be a method to save simple settings & retrieve them > without loading the entire file, then searching through all of it for > my one setting. When I say simple settings, I mean "File1=text.txt, > Color=234, FileDL = True". > > I have tried several methods and they are all too complicated to > mention here. I would GREATLY appreciate any suggestions of how to do > this simply. > Thank you. > > Reference material: > http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/04/AdvancedBasics/default.aspx > If you use serialization, you'll be deserializing to an object which has
all the properties keys/values of your settings file. Then, it is only a matter of accessing the property: FYI, not to make things too complicated, I would reccomend a singleton implementation of a manager class to handle the settings. Dim MyOptionsManager as CConfigurationManager MyOptionsManager = CConfigurationsManager.Instance() Reading: Dim SettingA = MyOptionsManager.SettingA Writing (method 1): MyOptionsManager.SettingA = MyValue 'MyValue being a variable = setting value Writing (method 2): MyOptionsManager.UpdateSetting("SettingA",MyValue") This last option basically illustrates the use of a method in the CConfigurationManager to allow the user to specifiy the setting and the value. I reccomend the first method, but the second method certainly has it's uses. All in all, it IS really, really simple to maintain application settings, and I wouldn't be concerned about reading the entire file for one setting. It's either methods like this or writing a wrapper to handle INI file settings -- tha's ugly. 
Other interesting topics
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
