How do I add a save option to my project?

Getting Started
1

I just started out with Xojo and are playing around with the design part mostly till now, but I am halfway through the Introduction to Programming with Xojo PDF file. What I don’t understand is how I can add a save option to my project. In my current project (the main reason I am studying Xojo) I will have mostly text fields that later on need to be printed, but of course the project file itself has to be saved as well. How do I add this?

2

Depending on the type of data, you could save the data to a text file using TextOutputStream.

3

How much data do you have? Does the data have a structure? Is it always same or similar data?

Check out json (http://documentation.xojo.com/index.php/JSONItem), which can be used as a simple format for your data. Then define a file type and save/load your data with the TextOutputStream.

4

My data is only text data. The only thing that the program will do is filling in text fields. Later on I also want to print all the text that the user filled into these text fields to a a printer or export as PDF.

5

The example project at Example Projects/Files/BinaryStream/BinaryStream.xojo_binary_project will get you started on reading and writing files. You can use one of many methods to store data, just be sure you write it in a way you can fetch it back later :wink:

Additionally, for much larger amounts of data you can use a SQLite database.

6

Thanks Tim! I will have a look. I am a little confused with the terminology; writing and reading a file means saving and opening a file? (Still a very beginner in programming here…)

7

Before you can either write or read a file it needs to be opened. Writing a file is saving it.

Try to write something like

"Textfield1:" + Textfield1.value

as first step. After reading the data back in use nthfield to get your value back. Then experiment how to get this working for multiple fields.

8

The best doc about TextOutPutStream is http://documentation.xojo.com/index.php/Textoutputstream

The third example at that page is real simple, but contains all the basics to write whatever you need.

If you have several fields, you may want to use a format like tab separator : write a field, then chr(9), then the other field, and so on.

Afterward, you will obtain a readable text file, but you will be able to separate fields again by splitting the input.

See http://documentation.xojo.com/index.php/Textinputstream and http://documentation.xojo.com/index.php/split

9

Hi, thanks for the info, I found a real good video tutorial on Youtube and followed it, I have it working now.

10

Here is the youtube video that helped me in creating a menu with a save and open option, very helpful to see someone create it: https://youtu.be/3JXWSIjideI

11

Andr:

you may go there to download Introduction to Programming with Xojo 3rd Edition (2016) and download either the eBook / pdf (with example).

It have parts to load text and save text and much more.

Nice to see, watch and read.

12

thanks Emile, I will have a look.

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