WpfSaveHelper

Easy way to save settings from a WPF window

The target of this project is to have an easy way to save all the user-editable data from a WPF, without introducing a ton of extra code.

The project contains two main classes:

• GuiSavedDataContainer - a class where the relevant data is saved and can be serialized/deserialized to XML or JSON

• GuiSaveHelper - the class that contains the methods to save/restore the data

Usage

There are three methods implemented in the static class.

    public static GuiSavedDataContainer SaveData( DependencyObject rootObj, string prefix, GuiCheckIdType scanType = GuiCheckIdType.Name )

This function retrieves the information from the controls and returns a GuiSavedDataContainer object that contains all the data.

The scan starts at rootObj, which can be any DependecyObject. The scan work recursively on all the children of the root object.

The parameter scanType selects which object property is used to filter the controls: Name or Uid.

The parameter prefix allows to enter a prefix which the controls must have in the property in order to be saved. The comparison is case insensitive. If prefix is null or an empty string, all the controls that have a non-empty Name/Uid are saved.

    public static void RestoreData( DependencyObject rootObj, GuiSavedDataContainer saveData )

This method restores the data from a GuiSavedDataContainer object.

The parameters are the GUI root rootObj and the saved data saveData.

    public static void ClearData( DependencyObject rootObj, string prefix, GuiCheckIdType scanType = GuiCheckIdType.Name )

This method was mostly implement for testing. It uses the same logic as the function SaveData to select the controls and it will clear the controls content. You can refer to the SaveData description of the function's parameters.

Configuration

A static field is included in the GuiSaveHelper class, which can be used to configure whether the PasswordBox is included or not in the save data:

    public static bool SkipPasswordFields {  get; set; }

If set to true, the PasswordBox.Password will not be included when using the function SaveData. By default, SkipPasswordFields is set to false.

Included controls

The following controls and properties are included in the save data:

• TextBox - Text
• ComboBox - SelectedIndex, Text
• ListBox - SelectedIndex
• Slider - Value
• CheckBox - IsChecked (supports tristate value)
• ToggleButton - IsChecked
• RadioButton - IsChecked
• PasswordBox - Password (conditionally)

GuiSavedDataContainer

This class is just a container to store the information retrieved from the GUI. It implements two functions to serialize it and two static function to deserialized a text. It can serialized/deserialize to XML and JSON.

        public string SerializeXml()
        public string SerializeJson()
        public static GuiSavedDataContainer? DeserializeXml( string text )
        public static GuiSavedDataContainer? DeserializeJson( string text )

The functions are self explanatory.

Example

Considering the following XAML:

        <!-- TextBox -->
        <TextBox Grid.Row="2" Margin="10" Height="25" Text="stuff" x:Name="mybox" Uid="ubox"/>

        <!-- CheckBox -->
        <CheckBox Grid.Row="3" Margin="10" Content="Check this" x:Name="saveCheck"/>

        <!-- Slider -->
        <Slider Grid.Row="4" Margin="10" Minimum="0" Maximum="100" Value="50" x:Name="saveSlider" Uid="mySlider"/>

prefix	scanType	Included Controls Name (Uid)
""	GuiCheckIdType.Name	mybox, saveCheck, saveSlider
"save"	GuiCheckIdType.Name	saveCheck, saveSlider
"my"	GuiCheckIdType.Name	mybox
""	GuiCheckIdType.Uid	mybox (ubox), saveSlider (mySlider)
"u"	GuiCheckIdType.Uid	mybox (ubox)

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If you find this useful, or it helped you to save time, you can buy me a coffee.

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