CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#winforms
brazc0re
brazc0re

Reputation: 353

Keeping track of 40+ control values

I am in need of some guidance for the following design.

I have a tab control that contains various group boxes. Within the group box, there are specific controls that relates to that group box. For example:

enter image description here

Now whenever a change is made to any control in the group box, the value for the control needs to be tracked because at the end of the application run cycle, the control data will need to be saved to a file that contains that value. An example file is:

HOT_STANDBY_FEATURE_ENABLE [val from control here]

HEART_BEAT_DIGITAL_OUTPUT [val from control here] ....

A design that I have in mind has another that has just properties that the group box form sets whenever a ValueChanged event occurs on a control.

Example code:

class ConfigurationValues
{
    public int HotStandbyValue { get; set; }
    public int HeartBeatDigitalOutputValue { get; set; }
    //...add all other controls here
}

The downside that I see to this is that there are 40 controls on that tab page, so I'd have to manually type each property. When the file needs to be generated at the end of the application run cycle, I have a method that gets the value of the control need.

Example:

private void GenerateFile()
{
    string[] file = 
    "HOT_STANDBY_FEATURE_ENABLE "  + ConfigurationTabSettings.HotStandbyValue;
}

Another design consideration I need to make is that whenever a user clicks "Open Configuration File", the values from the file from disk need to be loaded into the properties so the form can take that data on startup and populate the controls within the group boxes with their respective values.

Any suggestions on this design would be greatly appreciated. I know this is not the most efficent way to do this and am not the most experienced programmer, so any Google keywords I can search for would be great also.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 149

Answers (2)

Jon
Jon

Reputation: 3255

You'll need to bind the controls Text or Value properties to the properties in your ConfigurationValues class e.g.

ConfigurationValues cv = Repository.ReadConfigValues();

numPulseFilterDelay.DataBindings.Add("Value", cv, "PulseFilterDelay");

// Add the rest of your control bindings here

on the btnSave_Click() of your Form, end the current edit on the form and save the config values

void btnSave_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    BindingContext[cv].EndCurrentEdit(); // Commits all values to the underlying data source
    Repository.SaveConfigValues(cv);
}

In your repository class you'll need methods to Load() and Save() the data. You can put XmlSerialization code in here, or write your own format (depending on your requirements)

public class Repository
{
  public static ConfigurationValues LoadConfigValues()
  {
     var cv = new ConfigurationValues();

     string[] lines = File.ReadAllLines("values.cfg");
     foreach (string cfg in lines)
     {
        string[] nameValue = cfg.Split(new char[] { ' ' } ); // To get label/value

        if (nameValue[0] == "HOT_STANDBY_FEATURE_ENABLE")
          cv.HotStandbyFeatureEnable = nameValue[1];
        else if (nameValue[0] == "SOME_OTHER_PROPERTY")
          cv.SomeOtherProperty = nameValue[2];
        // Continue for all properties
     }

     return cv;
  }


  public static void SaveConfigValues(ConfigurationValues cv)
  {
     var builder = new StringBuilder();
     builder.AppendFormat("HOST_STANDBY_FEATURE_ENABLE {0}\r\n", cv.HostStandbyFeatureEnable);
     // Add the rest of your properties

     File.WriteAllText("values.cfg", builder.ToString());
  }
}

Upvotes: 2

Kaido
Kaido

Reputation: 3961

You could xml serialise and xml deserialise your ConfigurationValues class rather than writing manual "generate file" and "read file" methods

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/815813

Upvotes: 3

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