Save and Load TreeView content

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Introduction

This is a class named LoadAndSave in the jhTreeViewTools namespace. I wrote it, because I needed to save and load the content of a TreeView in correct order including the Tags of each node. And I wanted to use serialization for that.

This is why I strongly required that there is nothing stored in the Node.Tag that isn't serializable because this will cause an error message. I am serializing the whole root-nodes, so everything that is stored in that Node and its children will be saved. I am still wondering why the ToolTip-text is not saved although it's also part of a Node!?

Details

There are only two public methods:

public static int saveTree(TreeView tree, string filename)
public static int loadTree(TreeView tree, string filename)

With those you can save and load the contents only by giving the TreeView control and the file name as arguments.

I use this class in my application in mostly the same way but I changed the main-descriptions of each method to the English language. The rest of the code-comments are in German because I haven't got the time to translate everything. Please try it and if there is anything that I may change or if you find mistakes in my code, please email me. Remind yourself that I am a C# beginner!

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

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About the Author

j-hannemann

Database Developer

Germany

Member

I am programming more or less since I was 15 years.
It started with BASIC and during school I did
a lot Pascal programs for MS DOS.
After that I came to visual Windows programming and coded a lot in Delphi and later in C# .NET.
I made also some excursions in C and C++.

I also like Perl, Python and other scripting languages.
After a long break not programming anything, the last approx. 5-6 years I am only working with Java and SQL.

New for me is Objective-C - I am starting to get involved into Mac Programming Smile | :)

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Comments and Discussions

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Great code

countrysideflair

9:26 19 Jul '11

Short & Simple, love it! Thanks.
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Can't save stateimageindex using u'r code

mr.nothing

5:32 6 May '11

Hello! First of all thanks a lot for this code, but actually, using this I found out that I can save stateimageindex using this code. Could you please help me with this or just give me some pieces of advice?
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Re: Can't save stateimageindex using u'r code

j-hannemann

4:52 9 May '11

Hi Mr. Nothing Smile | :)

I am now since approx. 5 years only writing Java and I am no longer working with C#.
Because I am interested in many languages this was just my preferred one as I wrote the article.

I could imagine you have to cast your 'stateimageindex' to a object variable first so
it can be serialized - if it is an primitive type this may not work...
But this is just a suggestion.

In Java, Perl oder Objective-C what I am currently using, most of the
time I just don't want to serialize any data because I like human readable XML files Smile | :)

All the best!
Regards, Joerg

Saving to registry using Binary Stream

msanjay75

4:53 30 Jul '09

Hi your code worked just great - thanks a ton! I made a small modification for my use as my tree is quite small and is fine to be stored in the registry. Here it is... in case its useful to anyone.

Here's the use case:

<pre>
            private void cmdSave_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
            {
                  MemoryStream str = new MemoryStream();

                  TreeViewPersist.SaveTree(treeView1, str);

                  Application.UserAppDataRegistry.SetValue("TREEDATA", str.ToArray());
            }

            private void LoadData()
            {
                  var val = (byte[])Application.UserAppDataRegistry.GetValue("TREEDATA");

                  if (val != null)
                  {
                        MemoryStream str = new MemoryStream(val);

                        TreeViewPersist.LoadTree(treeView1, str);
                  }
            }
</pre>

For the implementation, I just overloaded existing methods and isolated the stream part, for example.

<code>
            public static int SaveTree(TreeView tree, string filename)
            {
                  Stream file = null;
                  try
                  {
                        // Datei anlegen
                        file = File.Open(filename, FileMode.Create);
                        return SaveTree(tree, file);
                  }
                  finally
                  {
                        if (file != null)
                              file.Close();
                  }
            }

..
         public static int SaveTree(TreeView tree, Stream output)
      {
            use output instead of original stream
      }
</code>

I think its simple enough. I can mail the complete source code on request.

I have miles to code before I sleep

Great code!

luk14133

0:05 16 Feb '09

Congrats!
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problem while saving

reji.sukesan

14:59 10 Jul '07

Hi, Its a nice work.But I have a problem while saving my tree into a file. From my tree( a wsdl file in tree structure) I cant save it to a WSDL file. Though it is serialised data is not in the text format. Can anyone help me please. Thanks in advance...
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how to implemt in project

ikkevd

3:47 7 Apr '07

I don't know how to implement this in my project. can you please help me? thx
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Re: how to implemt in project

j-hannemann

19:14 14 May '07

Hello there ... I am not into C# Programming at the moment - since some years I got the focus on Java. What exactly is your question ? Where is the problem ? Regards, JH
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Thank You

Aniket Salunkhe

3:22 27 Nov '06

Thanks for your Article. It was very much help for me in my Project.
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Re: Thank You ( 'DataGridViewRow is not marked as Serializable') [modified]

Aniket Salunkhe

2:30 28 Nov '06

I have an question.

I am using 'DataGridViewRow' array private object in my Class1 & I am saving the object of Class1 in the Tag of TreeNodes of treeView1. But When I am tring to save my treeView1 in File using saveTree() , it is giving me error that 'DataGridViewRow is not marked as Serializable'.
So what should I do to use DataGridViewRow in Tag object?

-- modified at 0:22 Wednesday 29th November, 2006

Nice One!!

J101uk

10:10 24 Sep '06

Hi, Thanks for this - really helped my project!!!
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Childnode Problem

David Rider

6:37 5 Feb '06

When I save my treeview to arraylist, your code can't save childnode. Right? Help me. I hope copy one treeview nodes to other treeview. Thanks.
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Good Job

PHDENG81

4:31 24 Jan '06

Hannemann , Thanks for the great code. It really helped me kick start my project. Props. P
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BUG!!!

lior654@hotmail.com

7:16 12 May '05

First of all let me just say that this is exactly what i was looking for. now, i noticed that if you add to treeview this: - item - item - item ( 1 subitem with another subitem with the same name ) then, when loading, it looks like this: - item - item - item (2 subs!!!) the problem is with the searchNode(). the thing is that i have not found a soultion... PLEASE responed...
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Re: BUG!!!

j-hannemann

7:51 14 Jun '05

Hi Lior ... as you know ( ) .. the Bug is now fixed ! I did some improvements .. the result is a better and shorter code. Regards, JH
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A couple suggestions...

.S.Rod.

23:28 30 Mar '03

Although the code is useful and fills the gap of TreeView state serialization, I would recommend to :

- use the built-in TreeNode serialization, namely :

private virtual void System.Runtime.Serialization.ISerializable.GetObjectData(SerializationInfo si, StreamingContext context) {
  if (this.propBag != null)
    si.AddValue("PropBag", typeof(OwnerDrawPropertyBag));
  si.AddValue("Text", this.text);
  si.AddValue("IsChecked", this.isChecked);
  si.AddValue("ImageIndex", this.imageIndex);
  si.AddValue("SelectedImageIndex", this.selectedImageIndex);
  si.AddValue("children", this.children, typeof(System.Windows.Forms.TreeNode[]));
  if (this.userData != null && this.userData.GetType().IsSerializable)
    si.AddValue("UserData", this.userData, this.userData.GetType());
}

- implement the ISerializable interface at the TreeView level (essentially recursively calling the mentioned TreeNode serialization method), so that it uses the standard .NET serialization "protocol".

Re: A couple suggestions...

j-hannemann

1:10 31 Mar '03

Hi. That looks fine... but I don't think that I am able to use your code. I did not knew that there is a built-in TreeNode serialization. Could you give a shot example how I can use your code ?
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Re: A couple suggestions...

.S.Rod.

1:40 31 Mar '03

- for the TreeNode, the GetObjectData is what is called by the CLR when you do a formatter.Serialize(stream, node);
- for the TreeView, you've got to add the [Serializable] attribute, inherit ISerializable, and provide implementation for GetObjectData. For instance :

[Serializable]
public class MyObject : ISerializable 
{
  public int n1;
  public int n2;
  public String str;
 
  public MyObject()
  {
  }
 
  protected MyObject(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context)
  {
    n1 = info.GetInt32("i");
    n2 = info.GetInt32("j");
    str = info.GetString("k");
  }
 
  public virtual void GetObjectData(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context)
  {
    info.AddValue("i", n1);
    info.AddValue("j", n2);
    info.AddValue("k", str);
  }
}

Re: A couple suggestions...

j-hannemann

3:03 31 Mar '03

Hi. I looked into the .NET Help and there is another example for that. I will try to do it that way, even if I am not really sure how it works and how I can use it with a TreeNode and what my new class, that I have to write, has to implement. Maybe I will have to ask you again .. because a more elegant and well-coded solution is always interesting for me.
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Re: A couple suggestions...

.S.Rod.

3:14 31 Mar '03

You are welcome to post on this topic since, as you know, it is a recurrent topic in dev forums and it will be greatly appreciated by many of us. -- modified at 10:12 Wednesday 12th October, 2005
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Re: A couple suggestions...

Marc Clifton

10:30 31 Mar '03

OK, how'd you do the dancing banana, or is it a trade secret?

Marc

Help! I'm an AI running around in someone's f*cked up universe simulator.
Sensitivity and ethnic diversity means celebrating difference, not hiding from it. - Christian Graus
Every line of code is a liability - Taka Muraoka
Microsoft deliberately adds arbitrary layers of complexity to make it difficult to deliver Windows features on non-Windows platforms--Microsoft's "Halloween files"

Re: A couple suggestions...

patnsnaudy

3:15 8 Apr '03

Sorry for the post that does not belong, but I had to try it! Jerry
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Re: A couple suggestions...

Marc Clifton

9:56 8 Apr '03

Oh great. Now there's two of you. I'll right. I'll give it a shot.

:banana:
:bananas:
:dancingbanana:

(This is probably of more value than this article, you know).

[edit]Phooey.[/edit]

[edit]YES!!![/edit]

Marc

Help! I'm an AI running around in someone's f*cked up universe simulator.
Sensitivity and ethnic diversity means celebrating difference, not hiding from it. - Christian Graus
Every line of code is a liability - Taka Muraoka
Microsoft deliberately adds arbitrary layers of complexity to make it difficult to deliver Windows features on non-Windows platforms--Microsoft's "Halloween files"