Jerry Dixon

Use Isolated Storage for Configuration Data

When storing user-specific program settings, I like using the Isolated File Storage capability of Windows and .NET.  This allows a program to place files into a location that is specific to that user and assembly.  Here's how:

Saving:

Dim isoFile As IsolatedStorageFile Dim isoStream As IsolatedStorageFileStream Dim bf As BinaryFormatter Dim optMap As Hashtable   optMap = New Hashtable() optMap.Add(“Key1”, 12) optMap.Add(“Key2”, 20)   isoFile = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForAssembly isoStream = New IsolatedStorageFileStream(“MyApp.cfg”,_ IO.FileMode.Create, isoFile) bf = New BinaryFormatter() bf.Serialize(isoStream,optMap)

Loading:

Dim isoFile As IsolatedStorageFile Dim isoStream As IsolatedStorageFileStream Dim bf As BinaryFormatter Dim optMap As Hashtable   isoFile = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForAssembly isoStream = New IsolatedStorageFileStream_(FILENAME,IO.FileMode.OpenOrCreate, isoFile)   If isoStream.Length > 0 Then bf = New BinaryFormatter()       optMap = CType(bf.Deserialize(isoStream),Hashtable)         x = CType(optMap(“Key1”),integer)       y = CType(optMap(“Key2”),integer) EndIf