SimpleConfig

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Introduction

To increase an application's usability it is often a good idea to deal with some persistent information. If someone doesn't want to hide these parameters in his Registry (maybe he often modifies these parameters manually), he could use a plain text file instead. The Config class that is presented in this example, offers a complete solution to handle plain text files as config files.

Features

• common parameter handling
  • <name> = <value>
• scope names: different config values can have equal names.
  • <scopeA:name> = <value>
  • <scopeB:name> = <value>
• value lists: indices will be added automatically, if <name> specifies a value array.
  • <name[0]> = <value>
  • <name[1]> = <value>
  • <name[2]> = <value>

The config file

This example deals with:

• the window's last size and position
• the filters of the CFileDialog
• the index of the last used filter
• the directory of the last opened file

Using the code

Tip

If you include the Config.h header in your StdAfx.h, you will be able to access all your config values from any file that itself includes the StdAfx.h.

Example

Calling all necessary functions to obtain the values from a value list. (Doing this in just one function is a bit hypothetical.)

// should always be the first Config method you call
// (a good place would be within your InitInstance() method)
Config::initialize();

// read your config file
Config::import("MyApp.cfg");

// the list of all values that are registered to "Foo"
vector<string> values;

// get first config value
const char* value = Config::getValue("Foo");

// get all config values
while(value)
{
    values.push_back(value);

    value = Config::getNextValue();
}

// write your config file (and use the path
// that was passed to Config::import())
Config::export();

// should always be the last Config method you call
// (a good place would be within your ExitInstance() method)
Config::depose();

Continuative stuff

The outright interface is a bit more extensive. Please have a look at the source code or the available documentation.

Other classes

• ConfigValue

  This class implements just some conversion constructors. Each constructor converts its passed value to const char*. All implicit type conversion that is done for you is encoded in this class. Due to this class the Config class only needs to provide one kind of setValue() method.

• Config::Implementation

  You don't have to worry about this class. This class holds all algorithms and data structures that enable the provided functionality. I separated this class from the Config class to be able to kick out all include directives from the Config.h file.

History

Version 1.0

Added:

• Config handling
  • initialize()
  • depose()
  • import()
  • export()
  • enterScope()
  • leaveScope()
  • setValue()
  • addValue()
  • getValue()
  • getNextValue()
  • removeValue()
  • removeParameter()
• Implicit type conversion
  • ConfigValue(int)
  • ConfigValue(long)
  • ConfigValue(unsigned long)
  • ConfigValue(double)
  • ConfigValue(bool)
  • ConfigValue(char)
  • ConfigValue(char*)