How to save and load a ListView's Content in a windows form?

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Hi everybody!

I have a Windows Form Application. It is a MP3 Player, it consists in a wmp.dll, a listview, and three buttons, one button shows me an OpenFileDialog, in which I can choose multiple songs, when I click OK in the Dialog it shows me the selected songs in the listview which has two columns: Title and Location;

I want a button to save the ListView's content so when I close the form and run it again, it will show me the "playlist" that I saved before.

First of all, I can't figure out how to do that.
Second, after searching on google, I tried to save the content with Xml, TXT, and no one of this methods got the problem solved.

Please help me with this problem, I'm breaking my head to solve it.

THANKS IN ADVANCE!

Posted 7-Jan-15 14:55pm

ChrisCreateBoss

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-07T15:20:00

Solution 1

It's better not to mess with XML or any other files by yourself, but to use serialization. Probably the best serialization method for you would be using Data Contract: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms733127%28v=vs.110%29.aspx[^].

This way, you can have any data model in the form of any arbitrary object graphs, save it in the file, and that restore it in memory as it was before saving. So, you work not with UI or XML, but with data. See also my past answers where I advocate this powerful approach:
Creating property files...[^],
How can I utilize XML File streamwriter and reader in my form application?[^].

—SA

Posted 7-Jan-15 15:20pm

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Comments

ChrisCreateBoss 7-Jan-15 21:25pm

Ok, thanks for your early response.

I am new to C#, I have not used complex coding yet, so, could you give me an example of how to apply it to my project?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 7-Jan-15 21:31pm

Read the article. You will find the example. Then try to define the model to solve your problem and try serialization. Then, if you still face the problems, ask further questions. Why do you thing answering your question about the "example" should provide you better material?
—SA

ChrisCreateBoss 7-Jan-15 22:32pm

Ok, and I said that because I don't understand the code provided in that article's example. As I said, I'm new to this type of coding.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 8-Jan-15 0:09am

This is not "coding". No problem. Learn more of programming, theory and practice, and come back when you get more confidence. Everyone should solve problem according their capacity. Be more realistic. Set aside players, advanced graphics and perhaps UI, get to fundamentals.
—SA

ChrisCreateBoss 8-Jan-15 13:49pm

I already got how to save my content in a .txt, now my problem is load it again in the listview.

Otherwise, DataContract did not work well for me. :3

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 8-Jan-15 14:26pm

Okay, do you want a lot more hassles? You are already having some. I advised your to use Data Contract, so work in this direction. You are less prepared to work on lower level by yourself, so use something which other created for you. I never advise "don't reinvent the wheel", but I'll say "don't reinvent the wheel unless you know how to make a much better wheel".
—SA

ChrisCreateBoss 8-Jan-15 14:33pm

Ok, I'll keep trying as you say with DataContract, but, "if I had more time I could reinvent the wheel much better".

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 8-Jan-15 15:31pm

Good. You see, as you are only starting with this, it seems to me to be not likely that could develop, from the very first attempt, different wheel which could be at least as robust and easy to use as available Microsoft Data Contract. I actually developed alternative system, which is usable and has some benefits over Microsoft's, but my success was somewhat limited so far, there are down-sides. So, from the standpoint of my experience, I can tell you: this work is extremely difficult.

And even if you simply want to go ad hoc, your work (easy, in this case) still will be much harder than using so high-level yet flexible thing as Data Contract.

—SA

BillWoodruff 7-Jan-15 22:23pm

+5 Once you learn to use DataContract, there's no going back :)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 8-Jan-15 0:09am

Thank you, Bill.
Well, going back (meaning fundamentals) will require when we get to creation of even more advanced technology.
—SA