Multi tool use

Is there an API for getting original Properties.Settings?

When you access for example:

Properties.Settings.Default.myColor


you will get actually a current setting of the value of myColor, not the original one which was set during the development of the program.

myColor

And I am looking exactly for it -- the values which were set originally as default. They can be seen again when the current settings are deleted.

Of course, I am looking for an API to get those values without deleting current settings.

2 Answers
2

You can find default value for a setting property by property name this way:

var value = (string)Properties.Settings.Default.Properties["propertyName"].DefaultValue;


But the returned value is string representation of the property value, for example, if you look at Settings.Designer.cs you will see the property is decorated with an attribute which stores the default value [DefaultSettingValueAttribute("128, 128, 255")]. In this case the return value for above code will be "128, 128, 225".

string

Settings.Designer.cs

[DefaultSettingValueAttribute("128, 128, 255")]

"128, 128, 225"

To be able to get the default value in the original property type, I created the following extension method:

using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Configuration;
public static class SettingsExtensions
{
public static object GetDefaultValue(this ApplicationSettingsBase settings,
string propertyName)
{
var property = settings.Properties[propertyName];
var type = property.PropertyType;
var defaultValue = property.DefaultValue;
return TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(type).ConvertFrom(defaultValue);
}
}


Then as usage:

var myColor = (Color)Properties.Settings.Default.GetDefaultValue("myColor");


DefaultValue

DefaultValue

object

string

I didn't find any existing API but I needed it so...

I made VS to create interface for entire Settings (in user part, not designer):

internal sealed partial class Settings : ISettings


this is only for easier using both settings (current and default)

Interface looks like this:

internal interface ISettings
{
bool AskForNewDescription { get; }
...


I created default settings class:

internal sealed class DefaultSettings : ISettings
{
public bool AskForNewDescription => GetDefault<bool>();


I didn't tested it for all possible cases, but it works for me:

private readonly ISettings source;

private string GetSerialized(string name)
{
var prop = this.source.GetType().GetProperty(name);
foreach (object attr in prop.GetCustomAttributes(true))
{
var val_attr = attr as DefaultSettingValueAttribute;
if (val_attr != null)
return val_attr.Value;
}

return null;
}

private T GetDefault<T>([CallerMemberName] string name = null)
{
string s = GetSerialized(name);
if (s == null)
return default(T);

TypeConverter tc = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(typeof(T));
return (T)tc.ConvertFromString(s);
}


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