c# store user settings in database

Question

Is there an easy method to store a person's user settings in a sql 2000 database. Ideally all settings in one field so I don't keep having to edit the table every time I add a setting. I am thinking along the lines of serialize a settings class if anyone has an example.

The reason I don't want to use the built in .NET user settings stored in persistent storage is work uses super mandatory profiles so upon a users log off the settings are cleared which is a pain. I posted asking for any solutions to this previously but didn't get much of a response.

Answer 1

you can easily serialize classes in C#: http://www.google.com/search?q=c%23+serializer. You can either store the XML in a varchar field, or if you want to use the binary serializer, you can store it in an "Image" datatype, which is really just binary.

Answer 2

You could serialize into a database, or you could create a User settings table containing Name-Value pairs and keyed by UserId. The advantage of doing it this way is it's easier to query and update through RDMS tools.

Answer 3

First you need your table.

create table user_settings
(
  user_id nvarchar(256) not null,
  keyword nvarchar(64) not null,
    constraint PK_user_settings primary key (user_id, keyword),
  value nvarchar(max) not null
)

Then you can build your API:

public string GetUserSetting(string keyword, string defaultValue);
public void SetUserSetting(string keyword, string value);

If you're already doing CRUD development (which I assume from the existence and availability of a database), then this should be trivially easy to implement.

Answer 4

The VS designer keeps property settings in the ApplicationSettingsBase class. By default, these properties are serialized/deserialized into a per user XML file. You can override this behavior by using a custom SettingsProvider which is where you can add your database functionality. Just add the SettingsProvider attribute to the VS generated Settings class:

[SettingsProvider(typeof(CustomSettingsProvider))]
internal sealed partial class Settings { 
   ...
}

A good example of this is the RegistrySettingsProvider.

I answered another similar question the same way here.