Dynamic User Settings

Visual Studio makes it easy to add user and application scoped settings. The settings tab on your project properties will let you add settings at design time. You can decide the type, scope, and default value. There may be times however when you would like to add a user scoped property at run time. I will demonstrate how to do this.

Adding the Property:

1. Create an instance of System.Configuration.SettingsAttributeDictionary.
2. Create an instance of System.Configuration.UserScopedSettingsAttribute.
3. Add the System.Configuration.UserScopedSettingsAttribute object to the System.Configuration.SettingsAttributeDictionary.
4. Create an instance of System.Configuration.SettingsProperty passing the System.Configuration.SettingsAttributeDictionary into the contructor as well as the property name, default value, and type.
5. Add the System.Configuration.SettingsAttributeDictionary to the My.MySettings.Default.Properties collection.

Example Code:

Private Sub AddProperty(ByVal propertyName As String, _
      ByVal defaultValue As String, ByVal propertyType As Type)
     Dim providerName As String = "LocalFileSettingsProvider"

     Dim attributes As New Configuration.SettingsAttributeDictionary()
     Dim attr As New Configuration.UserScopedSettingAttribute()
     attributes.Add(attr.TypeId(), attr)

     Dim prop As New Configuration.SettingsProperty( _
      New Configuration.SettingsProperty(propertyName, propertyType, _
     My.MySettings.Default.Providers(providerName), False, defaultValue, _
     Configuration.SettingsSerializeAs.String, attributes, False, False))

     My.MySettings.Default.Properties.Add(prop)
End Sub

Setting the Property Value:
Example Code:

My.MySettings.Default.Item(propertyName) = propertyValue

Getting the Property Value:

Example Code:

My.MySettings.Default.Item(propertyName).ToString()

Accessing the Property at Next Run:

You may notice that next time you run your application that the properties you added were not loaded automatically. Only properties that exist in your My.MySettings.Default object are loaded when properties are loaded.

1. Add your property.
2. Reload your My.MySettings.Default object.

Example Code:

AddProperty(SavedPropertyNameTextBox.Text, String.Empty)
My.MySettings.Default.Reload()

• Download the sample DynamicSettingsProject - 2.77 KB