Use settings

DevToys tools, especially those with a GUI, often expose options that persist even after the app is restarted. This feature allows users to maintain the configuration of DevToys and its tools from the last session.

Settings Provider

ISettingsProvider is a MEF service available for reading and writing settings. You can define a setting using SettingDefinition<T>. This service can be injected into a class using MEF's ImportAttribute attribute.

using DevToys.Api;
using System.ComponentModel.Composition;
using static DevToys.Api.GUI;

namespace MyProject;

[Export(typeof(IGuiTool))]
[Name("My Tool")]
[ToolDisplayInformation(
    IconFontName = "FluentSystemIcons",
    IconGlyph = '\uE670',
    ResourceManagerAssemblyIdentifier = nameof(MyResourceAssemblyIdentifier),
    ResourceManagerBaseName = "MyProject.Strings",
    ShortDisplayTitleResourceName = nameof(Strings.ShortDisplayTitle),
    DescriptionResourceName = nameof(Strings.Description),
    GroupName = "My Group")]
internal sealed class MyGuiTool : IGuiTool
{
    private static readonly SettingDefinition<bool> mySetting // Define a setting.
        = new(
            name: $"{nameof(mySetting)}",                     // Unique name for the setting.
            defaultValue: true);                              // Default value for the setting.

    [Import] // Import the settings provider.
    private ISettingsProvider _settingsProvider = null;

    public UIToolView View
        => new UIToolView(
            Stack()
                .Vertical()
                .WithChildren(
                    Button()
                        .Text("Click me")
                        .OnClick(OnButtonClick)));

    public void OnDataReceived(string dataTypeName, object? parsedData)
    {
        // Handle Smart Detection.
    }

    private void OnButtonClick()
    {
        // Toggle the setting value.
        bool settingValue = _settingsProvider.GetSetting(mySetting);
        bool newValue = !settingValue;
        _settingsProvider.SetSetting(mySetting, newValue);
    }
}

UI component for settings

DevToys GUI provides UI elements that can automatically handle settings. See Settings UI element.

Data types

SettingDefinition<T> supports values of various types. Some common types that can be easily parsed are already supported:

For more complex objects, you can save and restore them by providing methods to persist the data as a string and parse it from a string. This can be done using the Serialize and Deserialize properties, which can be set through a constructor.

Where are settings persisted

DevToys CLI

Settings are stored in a file named Cache/settings.ini in the folder where DevToys CLI is installed. in the folder where DevToys CLI is installed. If the app is in a folder that requires admin rights, such as Program Files on Windows, the app should be run with administrator privileges to persist settings.

DevToys GUI

Settings are stored in the Local AppData, in a file named %LocalAppData%/DevToys/settings.ini.

Do & Don't