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== Overview == = IniFiles =
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INI files are still useful to provide settings to an application. Vista is not going to change this.
The Windows API methods provided to read a particular value have an advantage: they follow a clearly defined search path, and following that path they take not only the INI file into account, they also check the Windows registry and the command line parameter. Furthermore, they deliver always up-to-date values.

They have disadvantages as well:

 * They are slow
 * They return everything as a string

If you are not interested in the Windows registry and command line parameters, and if you are not changing your INI files while the application is running, then the "!IniFile" class introduced in this article might attract your attention.

This class allows you to use a kind of APL-Syntax in your INI files.

== Details ==

An entry like:

{{{HomeFolder='C:/Windows/Appl/'}}}

results in a string holding the path, but an entry like:

{{{FormSize=300 400}}}

results in a two-element-vector "!FormSize" holding two integers.

Furthermore, an entry like:

{{{LogFolder='{"HomeFolder}Logsfiles/'}}}

is treated in a special way: the name between the curlies is taken as the name of an alreday defined value. It is then replaced by the value of that entry.

After creating an instance from the class:

{{{MyIni←⎕New #.IniClass 'C:/Appl/Example.ini'}}}

you can get all information you are interested in by calling the only method "Get". Given this file "Example.ini":
{{{
[GENERAL]
MaxNoOfErrors=20
FormSize=800 1200
LogfileFlag=1
LogLevels=1 2 3 ; from 1 to 9

[DIR]
Home='C:/mainfolder/'
AppFolder='{Home}appls/'
DocsFolder='{Home}docs/'
LogFileFolder='{Home}Logs/'
}}}

You can get any level of information you are interested in:

 * get everything
 * get only a particular section
 * get a particular value in a particular section

== Examples ==

{{{
      MyIni.Get ⍬ ⍬
 GENERAL
          MAXNOOFERRORS 20
          FORMSIZE 800 1200
          LOGFILEFLAG 1
          LOGLEVELS 1 2 3
 DIR
          HOME C:/mainfolder/
          APPFOLDER C:/mainfolder/appls/
          DOCSFOLDER C:/mainfolder/docs/
          LOGFILEFOLDER C:/mainfolder/Logs/
      MyIni.Get'General' ⍬
MAXNOOFERRORS 20
FORMSIZE 800 1200
LOGFILEFLAG 1
LOGLEVELS 1 2 3
      MyIni.Get'General' 'FormSize'
800 1200
      ¯1 MyIni.Get'General' 'Unknown' ⍝ with default
¯1
      MyIni.Get'General' 'Unknown' ⍝ without default
Value Error: "Unknown"
myDoc.Get'General' 'Unknown'
}}}

>> [:IniFiles/Script:The Script]

Author: Kai Jaeger
----
CategoryDyalog CategoryScripts		 The project has been relocated to [[https://github.com/aplteam/IniFiles]] on 2018-03-03.

IniFiles

The project has been relocated to https://github.com/aplteam/IniFiles on 2018-03-03.

IniFiles (last edited 2018-03-03 11:42:11 by KaiJaeger)