Question

This is a code block I use in most of my DNN Settings modules but it seems too verbose for what it does. How would you condense this to make it more usable or at least less redundant?

    /// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    /// <summary>
    /// LoadSettings loads the settings from the Database and displays them
    /// </summary>
    /// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    public override void LoadSettings()
    {
        try
        {
            if (Page.IsPostBack == false)
            {
                ddlTreeTabId.DataSource = GetTabs();
                ddlTreeTabId.DataBind();
                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty((string)TabModuleSettings["TreeTabID"]))
                {   //Look for the tree tab id
                    this.ddlTreeTabId.SelectedValue = (string)TabModuleSettings["TreeTabID"];
                    //If we're here, we have a tab module id, now we can grab the modules on that page
                    LoadTabModules(ddlTreeModuleID, int.Parse((string)TabModuleSettings["TreeTabID"]));

                    //we only do this part if the proceeding steps checked out
                    //if we have a tree module id 
                    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty((string)TabModuleSettings["TreeModuleID"]))
                    {
                        try
                        {
                            //carefully try to select that item from the module id drop down list
                            this.ddlTreeModuleID.SelectedValue = (string)TabModuleSettings["TreeModuleID"];
                        }
                        catch (Exception ex)
                        { //There may have been a module id but it aint on that page any more.  Ignore the error.
                            // I hate invoking try just to ignore an error. seems wasteful.
                        }
                    }
                }
        }
        catch (Exception exc) //Module failed to load
        {
            Exceptions.ProcessModuleLoadException(this, exc);
        }
    }

My ideal solution would implement the properties in such a way that throughout the module a Tree Module ID can be returned without typing all this.

if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty((string)Settings["TreeTabID"]) &&
    !string.IsNullOrEmpty((string)Settings["TreeModuleID"]))
{
    Do_SomethingWithTheIDs(
        int.Parse((string)Settings["TreeTabID"]), 
        int.Parse((string)Settings["TreeModuleID"]));
}

Imagine the complexity of loading several modules like that. Ugh.

---

UPDATE

Thanks to Olivier, I’ve wrote a new class to manage the properties

public class TreeSettingsBase : ModuleSettingsBase
{
    public int? TreeTabID
    {
        get
        {
            string s = (string)Settings["TreeTabID"];
            int id;
            return Int32.TryParse(s, out id) ? id : (int?)null;
        }
    }

    public int? TreeModuleID
    {
        get
        {
            string s = (string)Settings["TreeModuleID"];
            int id;
            return Int32.TryParse(s, out id) ? id : (int?)null;
        }
    }

    public int? PersonTabID
    {
        get
        {
            string s = (string)Settings["PersonTabID"];
            int id;
            return Int32.TryParse(s, out id) ? id : (int?)null;
        }
    }

    public int? PersonModuleID
    {
        get
        {
            string s = (string)Settings["PersonModuleID"];
            int id;
            return Int32.TryParse(s, out id) ? id : (int?)null;
        }
    }
}

So now my LoadSettings looks like this:

public override void LoadSettings()
    {
        try
        {
            if (Page.IsPostBack == false)
            {
                ddlTreeTabId.DataSource = GetTabs();
                ddlTreeTabId.DataBind();               
                if (TreeTabID.HasValue)
                {   
                    this.ddlTreeTabId.SelectedValue = TreeTabID.ToString();
                    LoadTabModules(ddlTreeModuleID, TreeTabID.Value);
                    if (TreeModuleID.HasValue)
                    {
                        try
                        {
                            this.ddlTreeModuleID.SelectedValue = TreeModuleID.ToString();
                        }
                        catch (Exception ex)
                        { 
                        }
                    }
                }
                ddlPersonTabId.DataSource = GetTabs();
                ddlPersonTabId.DataBind();
                if (PersonTabID.HasValue)
                {
                    this.ddlPersonTabId.SelectedValue = PersonTabID.ToString();
                    LoadTabModules(ddlPersonModuleID, PersonTabID.Value);
                    if (PersonModuleID.HasValue)
                    {
                        try
                        {
                            this.ddlPersonModuleID.SelectedValue = PersonModuleID.ToString();
                        }
                        catch (Exception ex)
                        {
                        }
                    }
                }

            }
        }
        catch (Exception exc) //Module failed to load
        {
            Exceptions.ProcessModuleLoadException(this, exc);
        }
    }

ModuleSettingsBase is available everywhere so TreeTabID, TreeModuleID, PersonTabID and PersonModuleID will be too. That’s what I wanted and it uses less code so thanks Olivier!

It would be nice to ditch the try catch but there’s no guarantee the value will be in the drop down list otherwise it would be even smaller. Still better though.

Answer 1

Create a wrapper class for your settings.

public class TabModuleSettingsWrapper {

   private SettingsCollection _settings; // I do not know of which type your settings are.

   public TabModuleSettingsWrapper(SettingsCollection settings) {
       _settings = settings;
   }

   public int? TreeModuleID { 
        get { 
            string s = (string)_settings["TreeModuleID"];
            int id;
            return Int32.TryParse(s, out id) ? id : (int?)null;
        }
   }

   // Repeat this for all the settings
}

Now you can access the settings with:

var settings = new TabModuleSettingsWrapper(TabModuleSettings);
if (settings.TreeTabID.HasValue &&  settings.TreeModuleID.HasValue) {
    Do_SomethingWithTheIDs(settings.TreeTabID, settings.TreeModuleID);
}