Starting Project, and building foundations - data storage

Hi.

Just started a VB project, and I was advised to have a look at XOJO, what can I say, seems simpler, and more intuitive. I achieved more in an afternoon with XOJO than with a few days of VB.

I was in the process of creating an application to be a GUI for sending data via the serial function. The project needs to consist a graphical interface to edit settings and data, mixes of notes, numbers (strings) , checkboxes etc. The second stage is to send selected data from the GUI, out the serial. Im not storing lost of data, just constants that will be sent via serial later.

The GUI must have the ability to save and load user files. Upon loading a file, and selecting a GUI window, the data is displayed, and can be edited, and saved.

The first question is, what would be the preferred method for this. I could use a database, which would make things very simple? (or not) or create a text file, and write to specific lines to store the data. Messy, but an option.

Can I load and save a database into the application? and change the eg" .db" filename extension to something else, to signify my project file type?

The sending of serial data I can sort later on, that depends on the stage above.

I have done MS excel VB in the past to create GUI’s and a little VB experience.

So far, I have a GUI with a few windows, and i’ve been practicing the events, and checkboxes.

Any helpful advice appreciated :slight_smile:

Welcome to the Xojo Community Steven!
To save the settings for your app you could most certainly use the SQLite database built into Xojo with your own extension.

There are some great examples here http://documentation.xojo.com/index.php/SQLiteDatabase on how yo create and open an SQLite Database.

Thanks for your prompt reply :slight_smile:

I will have a look. I want to avoid having a linear data layout, ( 1 row, and 50 columns) and to avoid this, id be having 2 columns, and 25 rows for each constant value and constant name.

Hopefully the system can be quite flexible :slight_smile:

Also, from the old forums, there’s a thread that I still use as a reference from time to time:

http://forums.realsoftware.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4342

Be aware that some implementation details may not apply to Xojo any more, but the general tips do.