I am trying to make my app stay the way I left it after closing the app. Therefore I want to save set of items from ListView to the settings and I can't figure out how to do that. I've found some solutions but I believe they are outdated as they don't seem to work.
Image shows set of items in ListView which I want to save so they appear there after restarting the app:
Items
This is where I want them to appear:
Settings
And this is part of code that I've tried out so far
private void btn_SaveConfig_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
int i = 0;
Settings.Default["IP"] = tBox_discoverServerFrom.Text;
Settings.Default["DiscoveredServers"] = cBox_discoveredServers.Text;
foreach (var item in lV_groups.Items)
{
var property = new System.Configuration.SettingsProperty("Group"+i);
property.PropertyType = typeof(string);
property.Name = "Group " + i;
Settings.Default.Properties.Add(property);
Settings.Default.Save();
i++;
}
}
I do not think using the Settings API is a great idea if you want to save any significant amount of data.
I would recommend the following
Create a class describing all the data you want to save. To make serialization easier it should have a parameter less constructor and public setters for all properties. This is sometimes called a Data-Transfer-Object (DTO)
Use json to serialize the object to a file. You would normally place the file in a subfolder in the local app data folder: Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData).
Do the reverse when you start the application. If there is a file, use Json to deserialize it and use it however you want.
You may optionally add logic to save the file periodically, this would allow recovery in case of application crashes. You might also want some system to keep more than one file, in case the application or computer crashes in the middle of a save operation, and the file becomes corrupt.
I have been reading about the best way to open dialogs using PRISM and opening them the MVVM way, however what I have found so far seems to only work with custom dialogs. I'd like to be able to open a CommonOpenFileDialog when a button is clicked but I am very confused how I can do this while adhering to the MVVM pattern.
I can accomplish this using the code behind but I would like to avoid this if possible, but the problem I run into here is how I can then pass the dialog result to the view model from the code behind. Would an EventAggregator be acceptable here?
This is my SelectFolderDialog class which opens the dialog. This is currently called from my views code behind:
public class SelectFolderDialog
{
public string SelectFolder()
{
var folderSelectorDialog = new CommonOpenFileDialog();
folderSelectorDialog.EnsureReadOnly = true;
folderSelectorDialog.IsFolderPicker = true;
folderSelectorDialog.AllowNonFileSystemItems = false;
folderSelectorDialog.Multiselect = false;
folderSelectorDialog.InitialDirectory = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments);
folderSelectorDialog.Title = "Select Folder";
folderSelectorDialog.ShowDialog();
string SelectedFolderPath = folderSelectorDialog.FileName;
Console.WriteLine(SelectedFolderPath);
return SelectedFolderPath;
}
}
The most MVVMy way is to have a SystemDialogService that you inject into your VMs, that has a method GetOpenFileDialogPath or something, that does exactly what your code does.
That way you can easily mock it in your unit tests and reuse it in other VMs.
Also, having a code behind IS NOT A BAD THING!
So, you rename your class by adding Service at the end, extract an interface for it and inject it in VM constructor using whatever dependency injection form you use.
Then in your button click command you can do:
var path = _systemDialogService.SelectFolder() - that's all
A few years ago I wrote up a fairly detailed article showing how to do pure MVVM dialogs with data-binding, you might want to check out the sample project. In addition to the common system dialogs it also works fine with 3rd party dialog libraries.
I might be updating it soon actually, as I've recently implemented custom WPF dialog boxes (arbitrary shapes etc) which are similar but have a few quirks to you have to be mindful of.
I am using the JitBit Macro Recorder to create "bots" that save me a lot of time at work. This program can use the mouse and the keyboard and perform tasks by checking different if-options like "if image found on screen".
My newest "bot" is about 900 lines of commands long and I would like to make a log-file to find an error somewhere in there. Sadly, this program doesn't offer such an option, but it let's me use c# as a task. I have NO experience with c# but I thought, that this is easy to do for someone who has some experience.
If I click execute c# code, I get the following input field:
Important: This code MUST contain a class named "Program" with a static method "Main"!
public class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("test");
}
}
Now I need two code templates:
1. Write a message to a "bot_log.txt" located on my desktop.
[19.05.2016 - 12:21:09] "Checking if item with number 3 exists..."
The number "3" changes with every run and is an exact paste of the clipboard.
2. Add an empty line to the same file
(Everything should be added to a new line at the end of this file.)
If you have no idea how to program in C#, then you should learn it,
if you want to use code provided from answers.
And if you want to generate timestamps and stuff then it's not done within minutes and I don't think someone writes the whole code just for your fitting. Normally questions should have at least a bit of general interest.
Anyway:
This works, if you have a RichTextTbox in your program.
Just do a new event (like clicking a button) and do this inside it.
(This was posted somewhere here too or on another site, with sligh changes)
public static void SaveMyFile(RichTextBox rtb)
{
// Create a SaveFileDialog to request a path and file name to save to.
SaveFileDialog saveLog = new SaveFileDialog();
// Initialize the SaveFileDialog to specify the RTF extention for the file.
saveLog.DefaultExt = "*.rtf";
saveLog.Filter = "RTF Files|*.rtf"; //You can do other extensions here.
// Determine whether the user selected a file name from the saveFileDialog.
if (saveLog.ShowDialog() == System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK &&
saveLog.FileName.Length > 0)
{
// Save the contents of the RichTextBox into the file.
try
{
rtb.SaveFile(saveLog.FileName);
}
catch
{
MessageBox.Show("Error creating the file.\n Is the name correct and is enough free space on your disk\n ?");
}
MessageBox.Show("Logfile was saved successful.");
}
}
SCENARIO
I manage and organize many files during the day, the SendTo is the most used feature that I use on Windows.
PROBLEM
By default, when the user clicks an item/link of the contextmenu to send the files, the O.S does not show any kind of advise/notifier indicating that the files are copying to the selected destination.
I consider it a very wrong design issue because for big files its OK ...a progressbar will be shown, but if the files are to small it will not show any progressbar/visual indicator so is not possible to ensure that the files are copied (without manual effort) because I'm human and I could click outside the SendTo contextmenu by error.
So, I would like to develop a personal mini-tool that will help me to optimize my time showing me a notifier window wherever on the screen when I send/copy files using the SendTo feature from the contextmenu, and only the SendTo feature.
QUESTION
In just simple words, I want to detect a copy/send operation from SendTo menu to ensure that the click was done properly on the menu item (and not outside the menu), by also providing additional basic info such as the source folder, the destination folder, and the amount of files or the filepaths.
Any ideas to start developing this tool in the right direction?.
I will be grateful for a code example in C# or else VB.Net, preferably this last.
APPROACH
Since I don't know how to start doing this I mean which could be the easiest or the efficient way to intercept those SendTo calls, firstly I thought to hook the CopyFile or CopyFileEx API functions, but they do not provide the information that I need because that function will be called in any kind of copy operation and not only when I use the SendTo Feature, so I'm lost.
I'm not sure if I should investigate more about internal calls, or maybe investigate more about the windows contextmenu itself instead of messing with function hooks and ugly things that I could avoid.
My main idea is to develop a hidden WinForms (or else a windows service) that stays in background waiting for when I use the SendTo feature (when I click on an item of the SendTo menu) and then show any kind of visual indicator on the screen to ensure that I properly clicked that menu-item and maybe inform about the amount of files that I'm moving and where I'm moving them.
RESEARCH
Here is a code example that I think it demostrates how to instantiate the SendTo com object to create your own?, but its written in c++ and I'm not sure if the example is helpful because my intention is not to replace the SendTo menu but I'll keep this useful info here it it serves for something else:
How to add(enable) standard "Send To" context menu option in a namespace extension
The KNOWNFOLDERID constants docs gives some useful info about the SendTo folder, again I'm not sure if this could help maybe for a read/access monitoring approach?, I just keep the info here:
GUID: {8983036C-27C0-404B-8F08-102D10DCFD74}
Default Path: %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
Legacy Default Path: %USERPROFILE%\SendTo
In the Shell Extension Handlers docs there is a Copy hook handler which I don't know if it has relation with the SendTo's COM component and if that could help me in some way,
the same ignorance for IContextMenu::InvokeCommand method reference which maybe I could intercept it to identify a SendTo invocation?
By the moment I feel like flying blind.
I recently found this A managed "Send To" menu class but again its a example written in C/C++ (I think is the same source before) which I don't understand at all and again I'm not sure if that could help me because I repeat that replacing SendTo is not what I have in mind (just because I don't know how to properly do it avoiding all possible risks, I prefer to still let Windows logic copy/send the files, I just want to detect the copy operation to retrieve info)
EXPECTED RESULTS AND USAGE
Step 1:
Select a random file and use the SendTo menu (in my language, Spanish, the command name is 'Enviar a')
Step 2:
Let the .net application's logic (working in background) intercept the SendTo operation to retrieve info.
(I only need help with this step)
Step 3:
Display the info somewhere over the screen to ensure that the SendTo operation was performed, to ensure that I properly clicked the SendTo item (My Link).
(That popup is just a simulation, I don't know any way to retrieve all that info)
It's really simple to do once you understand what SendTo really does, and it doesn't involves COM or shell extensions at all. Basically, the send to menu is populated with the content of the SendTo folder of the user profile (C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo by default in Windows 6.x).
When clicked, if the option is a shortcut to a folder it will copy the files there, but if there is a shortcut to a program (or a program executable itself) it will run that program, passing the paths of the selected files as command-line arguments.
From there, it's really trivial to make some program that simply takes paths as arguments, present some kind of notification and then copies the files or do whatever you want with them.
A quick and dirty example could be as follow (in C#, but could be done with anything else really):
private static void Main(string[] args)
{
if(MessageBox.Show("Are you sure you want to copy files?", "Copy files", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo) == DialogResult.No) return;
foreach (string file in args)
File.Copy(file, Path.Combine("c:\\temp", Path.GetFileName(file));
}
This just ask for confirmation for copying a bunch of files. Note that this really doesn't "intercepts" the send to menu, but rather handles it completely, so it's the program responsability to do any meaningful action. A more serious implementation could use the built-in Windows copy dialog and display some screen with progress or anything else, that's up to your needs.
It could also take some more parameters on the command line. When you place a shortcut in the SendTo folder, the destination could add some more parameters that will be passed as the first ones (before the file names). For example the destination of the shortcut can read c:\program files\copyfiles.exe c:\temp to pass the destination folder instead of hardcoding. The called program must then interpret the first parameter as the destination path and subsequent ones as the source files.
I've had to do something like this before. You don't even have to intercept the SendTo() function, you only need to make sure the the file has arrived. How about FileSystemWatcher if it's on the same computer?
You could use a watcher to watch before you send it, then, if the file successfully arrives at it's destination, you can display a successful message, and then kill the watcher.
Code Example
// Create a FileSystemWatcher property.
FileSystemWatcher fsw { get; set; }
// So we can set the FileToWatch within WatchFilesBeforeTransfer().
private string FileToWatch { get; set; }
private void WatchFilesBeforeTransfer(string FileName, string DestinationFolder)
{
fsw = new FileSystemWatcher();
fsw.Path = DestinationFolder;
FileToWatch = FileName;
// Only if you need support for multiple directories. Code example note included.
fsw.InclueSubdirectories = true;
// We'll be searching for the file name and directory.
fsw.NotifyFilter = NotifyFilters.FileName | NotifyFilters.DirectoryName
// If it's simply moving the file to another location on the computer.
fsw.Renamed += new RenamedEventHandler(FileRenamed);
// If it was copied, not moved or renamed.
fsw.Created += new FileSystemEventHandler(FileCreated);
fsw.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
}
// If the file is just renamed. (Move/Rename)
private void FileRenamed(Object source, RenamedEventArgs e)
{
// Do something.
// Note that the full filename is accessed by e.FullPath.
if (e.Name == FileToWatch)
{
DisplaySuccessfulMessage(e.Name);
KillFileWatcher();
}
}
// If creating a new file. (Copied)
private void FileCreated(Object source, FileSystemEventArgs e)
{
// Do something.
// Note that the full filename is accessed by e.FullPath.
if (e.Name == FileToWatch)
{
DisplaySuccessfulMessage(e.Name);
KillFileWatcher();
}
}
private void KillFileWatcher()
{
fsw.Dispose();
}
You can access the desired property information (like in your popup gif) in this way:
Folder name: Path.GetDirectory(e.FullPath); (like "C:\yo\")
Full file name: e.FullPath (like "C:\yo\hey.exe")
File name: e.Name (like "hey.exe")
Non-code execution process:
Before you initiate SendTo(), create an instance of the FileSystemWatcher property, and have it watch for a specific Folder/File name combination, which should show up in the watched folder: WatchFilesBeforeTransfer(FileName, DestinationFolder).
Initiate SendTo().
File received? DisplaySuccessfulSendToMessage(), KillFileWatcher();
???
Profit.
UPDATE:
I just realized that's just for one file. If you want to check for multiple files, you could either create multiple FileWatcher instances (not recommended), or use a List<string> object, like this:
private void SendTo(List<string> FileCollection)
{
// Clear your previous FileList.
FileList.Clear();
foreach (string file in FileCollection)
{
FileList.Add(file);
}
// Rest of the code.
}
List<string> FileList { get; set; }
private void WatchFilesBeforeTransfer(string DestinationFolder)
{
// Same code as before, but delete FileToWatch.
}
private void FileRenamed(Object source, RenamedEventArgs e)
{
foreach (string file in FileList)
{
if (e.Name == file)
{
// Do stuff.
}
}
}
private void FileCreated(Object source, FileSystemEventArgs e)
{
foreach (string file in FileList)
{
if (e.Name == file)
{
// Do stuff.
}
}
}
Hope this helps!
I'm afraid this ain't that easy.
I was playing around with the FileSystemWatcher on this, but with only partly success.
Something that should definitely work are File system drivers but this looks like just too, well, look at it...
In the end it might be the easiest way to write your own shell extension to access the SendTo folder, and use this instead of the SentTo command which would give you full control.
These might be some starters:
Windows shell extensions
Shell Context Menus
Maybe I come a little bit late to answer my own question, which was published on year 2015, but it wasn't until few days ago that I became interested in this matter again, with much more experience and knowledge gained in .NET after these years to start from scratch and try to understand everything that I did not understood in the past.
I just discovered that, as #Ňɏssa Pøngjǣrdenlarp already commented in the comments box, apparently the most viable way to accomplish this would be to implement my own SendTo context menu and use IFileOperationProgressSink interface to report progress, which for this firstly I need to depend on the usage of IFileOperation interface.
The reason to use the IFileOperation interface is because it seems the only way offered in the Windows API to let the developer perform multiple file operations (copy, move, rename, create or delete) all at once within the same progress dialog UI. This is probably the interface used by the system when the user selects multiple files or directories (via the SendTo menu or just CTRL+C and CTRL+V) to move or copy them at once, because it only shows one progress dialog with all the copy operations queued in it...
So clearly IFileOperation and IFileOperationProgressSink interfaces were what I need. But from what I know there is no managed implementation of these interfaces in the .NET framework namespaces (neither in the Microsoft's WindowsAPICodePack library), which seems somewhat inexcusable to me considering that these interfaces exists since the era of Windows VISTA or even earlier, and it is an indisputable improvement being the totally opposite of any built-in members that you can think of to perform copy, move, rename, create or delete operations, like for example System.IO.File.Copy or Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileIO.FileSystem.CopyFile method. All of them only supports a single operation and only on a single progress dialog at once.
So I focused to investigate on that suggested solution, and I ended up finding a good implementation of IFileOperation and IFileOperationProgressSink interfaces in this repository:
https://github.com/misterhaan/au.Shared/tree/master/IO/Files.FileOperation
And this one which is the original implementation that I found on a old Microsoft's article which also comes with a good PDF reading to learn some things:
https://github.com/mlaily/MSDNMagazine2007-.NET-Matters-IFileOperation-in-Windows-Vista
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/msdn-magazine/2007/december/net-matters-ifileoperation-in-windows-vista
Actually, for what I've discussed in this thread to do since year 2015, delving into the use of the IFileOperationProgressSink interface to report progress would not be necessary (only if I really want a deep progress information), since it is enough to determine that the copy was started / the call to IFileOperation.PerformOperations function was performed, and if any problems occur during the copy then it will appear in the progress dialog UI.
But of course what is still necessary is to develop a shell-extension of a custom SendTo menu to replace the one built into Windows. Shell-extensions could be developed with SharpShell library.
I develop in VB.NET language. I managed to extend and document their IFileOperation implementation and the wrapper, and updated the enums adding the newer, missing values added for Windows 7 and Windows 8.
If it can be helpful for someone, I'm going to attach the IFIleOperation and the wrapper in Vb.NET all in a new answer (because it exceeds the maximum character limit allowed for a post).
Note that in my implementation of IFileOperation interface and the wrapper class with name FileSystemOperation you will find some return types and missing classes or methods (like HRESULT return type or NativeMethods class), I just can't share all in one place, but these missing things are things that any experienced programmer will know how to resolve (eg. change HRESULT to UInteger type, and go to Pinvoke.net to find any missing method from my NativeMethods class).
UPDATE
It seems that StackOverflow doesn't allow me to add another answer, so I'll upload my implementation on PasteBin instead:
Class FileSystemOperation
https://pastebin.com/nvgLWEXu
Interface IFileOperation
https://pastebin.com/GzammHtu
Interface IFileOperationProgressSink
https://pastebin.com/jf9JjzyH
Class ComObjectDisposer(Of T As Class)
https://pastebin.com/7mPeawWr
Enum TransferSourceFlags
https://pastebin.com/V7wSSEvv
Enum FileOperationFlags
https://pastebin.com/A223w9XY
That's all.
Here is my timer enabled/disabled code:
{
if (checkboxConsoleStats.Checked == true)
{
frmMain.frmObj.consoleStatTimer.Enabled = true;
}
else if (!checkboxConsoleStats.Checked == false)
{
frmMain.frmObj.consoleStatTimer.Enabled = false;
}
I want to make the form remember the 'Checked' value after termination of the form and the application, sorry this is vague, I am in a rush. Thanks.
If you need to store the value after full termination of the app - you'll have to use a persistent storage that the app can access on init.
The easiest would be to use a flat file (just store a flag), but if you believe you will have more values that you'll need to remember - consider using XML/JSON file that you parse upon init and write to upon termination.
If you have more dynamic data (that needs to be written and read while the app is running) - you should consider using a DB. For a small app you can use an embedded DB such as SQLITE. Easy to use and needs no installation for the end-user.