Question

I’m a novice programmer using Visual C# 2010. I am trying to dynamically (during run time) create a new SettingsProperty and add it to the Settings.Default.Properties collection in my application (new settings). These properties are essentially user defined views (stored in a string) that I want to save for later reloading. I have tried using the code below but it doesn’t seem to be working. When I close the application, the newly created and saved properties are gone.

    private void button6_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        string connectionText = maskedTextBox3.Text;
        string vusipsText = maskedTextBox2.Text;
        string chartText = maskedTextBox1.Text;

        string[] settingsArray = { connectionText, chartText, vusipsText };
        string saveSettings = String.Join(":", settingsArray);

        //configure new property
        SettingsProperty property = new SettingsProperty("kri");
        property.DefaultValue = saveSettings;
        property.IsReadOnly = false;
        property.PropertyType = typeof(string);

        property.Provider = Settings.Default.Providers["LocalFileSettingsProvider"];
        property.Attributes.Add(typeof(System.Configuration.UserScopedSettingAttribute), new System.Configuration.UserScopedSettingAttribute());

        Settings.Default.Properties.Add(property);

        //Properties.Settings.Default.Reload();

        Settings.Default.Save();
        ActiveForm.Close();
    }

How can I get around this issue?

Thanks

Answer 1

Your code looks fine, but the Settings doesn’t know about your property next time you load the data. If you define your property again (at load time) the value should be available. This is a working sample out of a loop that I use to save enums:

     If My.Settings.Properties(settingName) Is Nothing Then
        Dim p = New Configuration.SettingsProperty(settingName)
        p.Provider = My.Settings.Providers("LocalFileSettingsProvider")
        p.Attributes.Add(GetType(Configuration.UserScopedSettingAttribute), _
                                    New Configuration.UserScopedSettingAttribute())
        p.PropertyType = GetType(SampleEnum)
        My.Settings.Properties.Add(p)
        If My.Settings(settingName) Is Nothing Then
           My.Settings(settingName) = SampleEnum.DefaultValue
        End If
     End If

Always run the code at startup to create the property and for the first time to create the value, too.