Using Methods and Classes

Hi Joe,

Classes should be used to separate functional modules, at least that is one of the good use of classes.

In this case, I would make a class to deal with the whole configuration part, something like:

    public class ConfigurationInfo
    {
        // The configuration file name to load/save.
        private readonly string _fileName;

        public string BbsName { get; set; }
        public string SysOpName { get; set; }
        public bool Logs { get; set; }
        public int AdminAccess { get; set; }
        public int UserAccess { get; set; }

        public ConfigurationInfo(string fileName)
        {
            _fileName = fileName;

            // You can set default values.
            BbsName = "BBS Name";
            SysOpName = "Sysop Name";
            Logs = true;
            AdminAccess = 99;
            UserAccess = 10;
        }

        public void Load(string fileName = null)
        {
            // If the parameter is not specified, use the default.
            if (fileName == null) fileName = _fileName;

            using (StreamReader streamReader = File.OpenText(fileName))
            {
                BbsName = streamReader.ReadLine();
                SysOpName = streamReader.ReadLine();
                Logs = String.Equals("Y", streamReader.ReadLine(), StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
                AdminAccess = Convert.ToInt32(streamReader.ReadLine());
                UserAccess = Convert.ToInt32(streamReader.ReadLine());
                streamReader.Close();
            }
        }

        public void Save(string fileName = null)
        {
            // If the parameter is not specified, use the default.
            if (fileName == null) fileName = _fileName;

            if (!File.Exists(fileName))
            {
                // Gets the parent directory path.
                var directoryPath = Path.GetDirectoryName(fileName);
                if (directoryPath == null) return;

                // Creates the specified directory and all parent directories.
                Directory.CreateDirectory(directoryPath);
            }

            // Saves the configuration to the specified file.
            using (StreamWriter streamWriter = File.CreateText(fileName))
            {
                streamWriter.WriteLine(BbsName);
                streamWriter.WriteLine(SysOpName);
                streamWriter.WriteLine(Logs ? "Y" : "N");
                streamWriter.WriteLine(AdminAccess);
                streamWriter.WriteLine(UserAccess);
                streamWriter.Close();
            }
        }
    }

And then you can easily save/load the configuration anywhere, for instance:

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Save the configuration.
            var configInfo1 = new ConfigurationInfo(@".\Sample.txt");
            configInfo1.BbsName = "Some other name than the default";
            configInfo1.Save();

            var configInfo2 = new ConfigurationInfo(@".\Sample.txt");
            configInfo2.Load();
            Console.WriteLine("BBS Loaded: " + configInfo2.BbsName);

            Console.ReadKey();
        }

This saves the configuratio with a specific BBSName.

After that, it loads it to other variable and you can see that it loads great.

Is this what you were looking for?

Best regards,

Fernando Rocha