Question

I have a program in C# WPF which analyzes certain log files. Each log contains lines of data in a format which contains an address and a data offset.

For example, some log files can have the format:

mmio address : data

or some can have the format:

write address : data

There can be many such formats, but rest assured that each line when parsed with an appropriate RegEx should always return an address and a data.

I want to make this RegEx controllable from the application. I don’t want to hardcode the RegEx of each format in the source code. The user should be able to modify an existing RegEx or add a new RegEx for a new kind of log file. I should provide him something like a table from which he can select a particular row or add a new row for a new log file

Table:

Name of Log – RegEx

MMIO Log – MMIO ([0-9]{8}) : ([0-9]{8}) –> Radio Button

Write Log – Write ([0-9]{8}) : ([0-9]{8}) –> Radio Button

How can I do this? Can I store this in some kind of config file or use a plugin model which I don’t have much idea how to implement.

Answer 1

A plug-in system is absolute overkill. Just use the App.config to store the expressions and show them in a combo box or something similar. Have a look at this great article series how to access the configuration. Additional reference for the System.Configuration namespace comes from the MSDN.