Save data in a Visual Studio WPF aplication without a database

Question

I'm developing a WPF app using C#.

The first thing my app does is trying to connect to the database, so I ask for some data to connect to the database like the name of the server (could be the IP too), the name of the database, the name of MySQL instance user and password, and the port (3306 for default). But I want to save this info in the app because I don't have the database yet to save there.

I want to save this strings in the application without using a database:

• Computer Name
• Name of the database backup
• MySql Instance User
• MySql Instance Pass
• Port

I don't want to save this data in the database because I need this info for the first use of the application.

With first use I mean before the database backup is even restored to the server from the installer.

Answer 1

You can save file with registry. Try this :

Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey RegistryKey = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.CurrentUser.CreateSubKey("WPF APPLICATION");
        RegistryKey.SetValue(SET THE VALUE);
        RegistryKey.Close();

Answer 2

best practice is to store these values in configuration file. like a .ini file or xml file. if your data is sensitive and you don't wish to see this details directly you can encrypt this data with any convenient encryption method.

so your ini file structure will look like this,
[port]=3306
[ip]=111.222.1.2

hope this will help.

Answer 3

Try using the app.Config.

The main benefit of the app.config is that It's directly attached to your executable. Once you build your solution, the app.config gets copied together with the executable.

From What is App.config in C#.NET? How to use it?:

At its simplest, the app.config is an XML file with many predefined configuration sections available and support for custom configuration sections. A "configuration section" is a snippet of XML with a schema meant to store some type of information.

Settings can be configured using built-in configuration sections such as connectionStrings or appSettings. You can add your own custom configuration sections; this is an advanced topic, but very powerful for building strongly-typed configuration files.

Source for app.config in msdn: How to: Add an Application Configuration File to a C# Project

Answer 4

.NET Applications are compiled with a .config file like "YourApp.exe.config" next to the .exe.

This file should be used for such purposes, and can be accessed in code with the ConfigurationManager.

Answer 5

/You can Save Data in XML file/

//You can Save and load time by this method but it's slow process, it may crash if data is large and system is slow, it stores data runtime so takes RAM, its ok to use for few rows without any problem

//use the collection for storing data runtime

List<Person> pers = new List<Person>();
public class Person
{
  public string id { get; set; }//1
  public string name { get; set; }//2
  public string bilno { get; set; }//3
  public string mob { get; set; }//4
  public DateTime dt { get; set; }//5
}  


string path=@"c:\.....";
void save()
{
    XmlDocument xdoc = new XmlDocument();
    xdoc.Load(path + @"\data.xml");
    XmlNode xnode = xdoc.SelectSingleNode("Items");
    xnode.RemoveAll();

    foreach (Person i in pers)
    {
        XmlNode xtop = xdoc.CreateElement("Item");

        XmlNode x1 = xdoc.CreateElement("a");
        XmlNode x2 = xdoc.CreateElement("b");
        XmlNode x3 = xdoc.CreateElement("c");
        XmlNode x4 = xdoc.CreateElement("d");
        XmlNode x5 = xdoc.CreateElement("e");


        x1.InnerText = i.id;
        x2.InnerText = i.name;
        x3.InnerText = i.bilno;
        x4.InnerText = i.mob;
        x5.InnerText = i.dt.ToFileTime().ToString();

        xtop.AppendChild(x1);
        xtop.AppendChild(x2);
        xtop.AppendChild(x3);
        xtop.AppendChild(x4);
        xtop.AppendChild(x5);

        xdoc.DocumentElement.AppendChild(xtop);
    }
    xdoc.Save(path + @"\data.xml");
}
void load()
{
    XmlDocument xdoc = new XmlDocument();
    xdoc.Load(path + @"\data.xml");
    foreach (XmlNode xnode in xdoc.SelectNodes("Items/Item"))
    {
        Person p = new Person();
        p.id = xnode.SelectSingleNode("a").InnerText;
        p.name = xnode.SelectSingleNode("b").InnerText;
        p.bilno = xnode.SelectSingleNode("c").InnerText;
        p.mob = xnode.SelectSingleNode("d").InnerText;
        p.dt = DateTime.FromFileTime(Convert.ToInt64(xnode.SelectSingleNode("e").InnerText));

    }
}