如何在 C# 的运行时保存多个用户设置

Question

I am trying to make my app stay the way I left it after closing the app. Therefore I want to save set of items from ListView to the settings and I can't figure out how to do that. I've found some solutions but I believe they are outdated as they don't seem to work.

Image shows set of items in ListView which I want to save so they appear there after restarting the app:

Items

This is where I want them to appear:

Settings

And this is part of code that I've tried out so far

 private void btn_SaveConfig_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        int i = 0;
        Settings.Default["IP"] = tBox_discoverServerFrom.Text;
        Settings.Default["DiscoveredServers"] = cBox_discoveredServers.Text;
        foreach (var item in lV_groups.Items)
        {
            var property = new System.Configuration.SettingsProperty("Group"+i);
            property.PropertyType = typeof(string);
            property.Name = "Group " + i;
            Settings.Default.Properties.Add(property);
            Settings.Default.Save();
            i++;
        }
    }

Answer 1

I do not think using the Settings API is a great idea if you want to save any significant amount of data.

I would recommend the following

1. Create a class describing all the data you want to save. To make serialization easier it should have a parameter less constructor and public setters for all properties. This is sometimes called a Data-Transfer-Object (DTO)
2. Use json to serialize the object to a file. You would normally place the file in a subfolder in the local app data folder: Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData) .
3. Do the reverse when you start the application. If there is a file, use Json to deserialize it and use it however you want.
4. You may optionally add logic to save the file periodically, this would allow recovery in case of application crashes. You might also want some system to keep more than one file, in case the application or computer crashes in the middle of a save operation, and the file becomes corrupt.