I'm working on a program that needs a feature that has similar functionality as a contact list. I need to have user settings, but I don't know how, if it's even possible, to create application settings in code.
I would like to be able to add as many new "contact" settings as needed, so I figured if I couldn't create new settings, I should just have one setting that is a list, but that also doesn't seem to be possible. I've looked around on here and Google and can't find anything to fit my needs.
Requirements:
Store contact-like data such as phone numbers, email addresses, etc.
Be able to add as many of these contact settings as needed.
Everything in one executable file.
Edit: So there's the object data type, which seems to fit my needs. Is there a reason this wasn't an answer to any of the very similar questions to mine? It seems to be perfect..
Edit: Nevermind, seems to be compiler errors when trying to access a property of my object because it doesn't have that property until it's an instance of my own objects...
With JayP. Sql Server Compact might also be a possibility, it creates a local 'mini' database, without the need of a sql server installation.
While it is pedantic, I'm not sure a contact list should really be considered as 'settings'. It's really data. As such, it might be better to store this data in an XML file or similar.
Let me add my 2 coins. The data the #Walkerneo is talking about is not "settings" data. It's real data that should be considered in other way. I would suggest to separate them into 2 parts: real data and real settings.
The best place for real data is DB. It may be Firebird or MS SQL Compact or something else.
As for settings the Registry is a good place. At least Qt that is cross platform language uses this approach for Win apps
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Related
I've got an ObservableCollection which is binded to my LongListSelector.
User can add items to it by form in my app - all data saved in list are serialized.
I want to add few items to my app, that will be present after installation. User can delete and modify them, like any other items.
What is the best way to do that? I don't think that creating multiple objects in code is good idea.
Local databases are what you need. They would even be helpful later of you plan to persist the changes user has made.
Windows Phone Silverlight has nice LINQ-to-SQL support with SQL server CE. Here's the information you'll need to implement databases: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/hh202860%28v=vs.105%29.aspx
If you prefer app walkthrough, here it is: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/hh202860%28v=vs.105%29.aspx
You will need to deploy a reference database and copy it to isolated storage since you want user to have some data prepopulated. Here's a nice reference for such scenarios: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/hh286411%28v=vs.105%29.aspx
Edit: You can, of course, use external XML, but it has its fair share of problems like this.
I wrote a reminder program that runs automatically on startup. I want to know if there is a way, other than SQL-Server, to store event, date and time data. I do not want to use SQL-Server for this work, because I think SQL-Server is very big for this simple task. I think that I can use a file to store data in it. What do you think about this?
Some common ways to store information:
As a file. You have many options where you can store the file. For instance, user directory, and program directory. Further explanation here and here. I prefer using a serializer (xml or json).
As a registry entry. You store your information as key-value pairs.
In a light-weight database:
RavenDB: its document-oriented, and stores data in json format
SQLite: relational; I recommend this SQLite Admin for managing purpose
Registry entries are more safe regarding user actions. On the other hand, files can be easily deleted.
You always have the option, to encrypt your information.
As a side note, you can also use PostSharp to declare variables to be stored in your registry. The code becomes something like this:
[RegistryBacking]
private bool _boolean;
I can provide code later if you need it... when I'm home again.
For the part where to persist
From this document (Managing User Data Deployment Guide, download):
Windows uses the Local and LocalLow folders for application data
that does not roam with the user. Usually this data is either machine
specific or too large to roam.
Windows uses the Roaming folder for application specific data, such
as custom dictionaries, which are machine independent and should roam
with the user profile.
So, I suggest using AppData\Roaming and persisting to a file since I consider a 'reminder app' to be user specific. And domain users for example would consider that valuable (syncing to server).
Local and LocalLow (the latter is used for low integrity mode, for applications with reduced privileges) would be more appropriate for some machine/installation specific data which can be calculated on-the-fly.
Registry seems great for some low amount of keys, but doesn't seem to be the best option for such use.
There is another option - IsolatedStorage, which should be used when mentioned options are not applicable, like when using ClickOnce deployments.
For the part how to persist your data to a file ... well, pick your favorite. You could use SQLite database which comes really lightweigt if you want more control and power or just use XML serialization to a file if you consider using SQLite an overkill. Or any of other viable options.
XML. .NET has classes that makes handling xml files easy. If you're saving structured data then XML might be your best bet.
I have for very similar reasons tried some easy to deploy databases and yet use the knowledge i have.
VistaDB 3.x and 4 are my first choice because they are very much SQL Server compaible and allows me to switch to sql server anytime i like. This supports EF too!!!
Next is db4o by Versant which is very very handy. I use it mostly for quick prototyping but i have deployed to several small solutions and perfect for your kind of application.
I hope that helps!
I want to be able to maintain a count and a last accessed date across application loads for a web service polling application. I'm not too sure what the best way to do this is. I dont like the idea of storing that data in a database as I would have to create one specifically for the purpose. What other options do I have and are there any particularly nice ways of keeping application state between subsequent runs of the app?
Persisting data eh? I suggest a database or file.
File solutions you can just XML serialize to a file and load it again when the app starts.
If the data is shared or might ever grow, then a database is probably the best solution. You can find one that fits your need among the many free projects if you wish:
couchdb
mysql
postgres
mangodb
membase
sqlite
etc
You could roll your own solution that doesn't involve a database, but most likely there is one that fits your needs and learning it would be useful beyond just the project at hand.
Don't be afraid to make a 'configuration' style table for your website, that simply has only a few rows and let's you store runtime information as needed.
Perfectly fine.
I'm trying to prepare to build a database driven .net application and I have hit a roadblock early on due to my lack of knowledge on this topic. Searching around didn't yield anything so here I am asking for help.
I'm receiving weekly data in xml format that will be added to a database and then reports generated using that data. I have a limited license on the xml files so only I can download them and I need to get the results to my end users as well. As far as I can see, I have 2 options:
Feed the data from the xml files into a web hosted database and then have each user connect to the database.
Upload the xml data to a server, have each user download it and keep a local copy of their own database. I'm thinking this will invalidate my license to the original data.
Things / questions of note:
The database holds weekly sports historical data for about the last 10 years.
I need to limit access to the database to only subscribed users.
I'll need to decide how the database will be built.
I need to decide what kind of hosting I'll need.
As you can see, quite an ambitious project for someone new to this. I haven't asked any specific questions so far:
What kind of hosting solutions shall I look for?
Should I use SQL? (Complete newbie on this subject)
Should I use clickonce and then host the application?
Do you have any book or tutorial recommendations that would cover a project like this?
Do I need a script to feed the xml into the database if I go that route? Will that script reside on the server and do it automatically even if I'm not there to instigate it?
I hope the general topic isn't too vague. I tried to actually ask specific questions on it and I'm aware I don't have any code to show as it's just in the early stages of thinking.
The question is a bit vague since you are early on in the decision-making process. However, I do believe that I can offer some help in directing your thinking as you proceed. I think in the situation you are describing, one key thing you should consider is to host your data via JSON/WCF/REST. If you look into these technologies, you will see that there are different ways you can offer your data based upon your developing requirements. For example, how are you going to do authentication? Are you going to allow third-party clients?
What you really don't want to do is allow direct database access, even for authenticated users. Instead, put something in front of it. If you are working in the .NET space, look into all of the different things WCF offers and pick one based upon what fits best. Once you pick that, then you will know what you need for hosting and deployment. Even if you are going to provide the clients as well as the server, this is still a good way to protect your data and provide a way to expand your offering in the future.
I am currently writing an IRC client and I've been trying to figure out a good way to store the server settings. Basically a big list of networks and their servers as most IRC clients have.
I had decided on using SQLite but then I wanted to make the list freely available online in XML format (and perhaps definitive), for other IRC apps to use. So now I may just store the settings locally in the same format.
I have very little experience with either ADO.NET or XML so I'm not sure how they would compare in a situation like this.
Is one easier to work with programmatically? Is one faster? Does it matter?
It's a vaguer question than you realize. "Settings" can encompass an awful lot of things.
There's a good .NET infrastructure for handling application settings in configuration files. These, generally, are exposed to your program as properties of a global Settings object; the classes in the System.Configuration namespace take care of reading and persisting them, and there are tools built into Visual Studio to auto-generate the code for dealing with them. One of the data types that this infrastructure supports is StringCollection, so you could use that to store a list of servers.
But for a large list of servers, this wouldn't be my first choice, for a couple of reasons. I'd expect that the elements in your list are actually tuples (e.g. host name, port, description), not simple strings, in which case you'll end up having to format and parse the data to get it into a StringCollection, and that is generally a sign that you should be doing something else. Also, application settings are read-only (under Vista, at least), and while you can give a setting user scope to make it persistable, that leads you down a path that you probably want to understand before committing to.
So, another thing I'd consider: Is your list of servers simply a list, or do you have an internal object model representing it? In the latter case, I might consider using XML serialization to store and retrieve the objects. (The only thing I'd keep in the application configuration file would be the path to the serialized object file.) I'd do this because serializing and deserializing simple objects into XML is really easy; you don't have to be concerned with designing and testing a proper serialization format because the tools do it for you.
The primary reason I look at using a database is if my program performs a bunch of operations whose results need to be atomic and durable, or if for some reason I don't want all of my data in memory at once. If every time X happens, I want a permanent record of it, that's leading me in the direction of using a database. You don't want to use XML serialization for something like that, generally, because you can't realistically serialize just one object if you're saving all of your objects to a single physical file. (Though it's certainly not crazy to simply serialize your whole object model to save one change. In fact, that's exactly what my company's product does, and it points to another circumstance in which I wouldn't use a database: if the data's schema is changing frequently.)
I would personally use XML for settings - .NET is already built to do this and as such has many built-in facilities for storing your settings in XML configuration files.
If you want to use a custom schema (be it XML or DB) for storing settings then I would say that either XML or SQLite will work just as well since you ought to be using a decent API around the data store.
Every tool has its own right
There is plenty of hype arround XML, I know. But you should see, that XML is basically an exchange format -- not a storage format (unless you use a native XML-Database that gives you more options -- but also might add some headaches).
When your configuration is rather small (say less than 10.000 records), you might use XML and be fine. You will load the whole thing into your memory and access the entries there. Done.
But when your configuration is so big, that you dont want to load it completely, than you rethink your decission and stay with SQLite which gives you the option to dynamically load those parts of the configuration you need.
You could also provide a little tool to create a XML file from the DB-content -- creation of XML from a DB is a rather simple task.
Looks like you have two separate applications here: a web server and a desktop client (because that is traditionally where these things run), each with its own storage needs.
On the server side: go with a relational data store, not Xml. Basically at some point you need to keep user data separate from other user data on the server. XML is not a good store for that.
On the client: it doesn't really matter. Xml will probably be easier for you to manipulate. And don't think that because you are using one technology in one setting, you have to use it in the other.