Looking for some advice for my program

Dear All,

I have been thinking for a while now and can't come to a conclusion for this
problem

I've written a program that saves settings and other information in a .txt
file and reads it when the program loads.. up until now, when I've upgraded
the program I've had to advise the 'testers' to uninstall and re-install
because I've added extra things and the old settings (.txt files) and other
stuff would cause a crash, as the program is looking for one thing, and
finds something else...even when I introduced a new option, it was easier
for me to create a new .txt file for that particular part. Ultimately I
would love everything within one file, be it a .txt file, or even a binary
file that was as visible to the user....

What I ask, is there a fool safe way of saving information, so that any
upgrades aren't as painful?

I was thinking (if I was going to stay within the .txt file format) to maybe
have a number system, I.e. the program reads the settings number and dumps
it into the required setting based on the number...but I'm thinking that may
be too complicated...

I've used many a program that you can over-upgrade and most if not all your
settings carry over, I would like to achieve the same thing...

Hope this makes sense..

Regards
Paul.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: IAF
    ... With version upgrades you're always left with some ... registry keys since options are dropped, extended or added in new versions. ... This applies especially to Mail Profiles; Outlook 2000 has different ... >> 2003 cannot import settings from Outlook 2000. ...
    (microsoft.public.outlook)
  • Re: SP2
    ... some settings were not maintained. ... time for upgrades, I understand and forgive Microsoft most frequently than ... > that I'm not sure was caused by SP2, ... > reset the MCE storage back to the F: drive and it's worked fine since ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: Looking for some advice for my program
    ... upgrades aren't as painful? ... so your app would not try to read some ... text file that happened to be named like your settings file. ... using only those that it recognises, and simply ignoring any it does not ...
    (microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion)
  • Re: 70-291 - FAILED!! CLOSE...Got 681 - Questions regarding dns zone transfers..
    ... >pulled from the ADI Primary and the settings to allow>one transfers ... >ither that or maybe you missed the need for zone>ransfers if you're ...
    (microsoft.public.cert.exam.mcse)
  • Re: SMS Desktop OS upgrade?
    ... upgrades, and many customers have done many such upgrades, so it can be ... operating system 'rebuild' so to speak, so that's where OSD comes in handy. ... > Back up the user's settings (user state migration tool). ... > Clean-Install the OS per settings in the unattend file you provide. ...
    (microsoft.public.sms.misc)
Loading