Search results matching tag 'ObjectStorageHelper'

ObjectStorageHelper now available via nuget

jamiet — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:17:20 GMT

One of my numerous little side projects has recently been ObjectStorageHelper, a library that makes it easy to read/write files in WinRT (aka Windows 8) applications. This is a short post to let you know that ObjectStorageHelper is now available in the nuget gallery and hence can easily be added to your WinRT applications by running the following command in the nuget Package Manager Console:

Massive thanks to Scott Lovegrove (@scottisafool) for ~~helping me with this~~ making this happen.

To read more about ObjectStorageHelper and what it can do for you please visit Generic Object Storage Helper for WinRT on Codeplex. I know of four apps in the Windows Store that are currently making use of ObjectStorageHelper, they are:

The following code shows how easy it is to store files using ObjectStorageHelper:

and subsequently retrieve them:

@Jamiet

ObjectStorageHelper<T> now available for Windows 8 RTM

jamiet — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 22:20:19 GMT

In October 2011 I wrote a blog post entitled ObjectStorageHelper<T> – A WinRT utility for Windows 8 where I introduced a little utility class called ObjectStorageHelper<T> that I had been working on while noodling around on the Developer Preview of Windows 8. ObjectStorageHelper<T> makes it easy for anyone building apps for Windows 8 to save data to files. How easy? As easy as this:

var myPoco = new Poco() { IntProp = 1, StringProp = "one" };
var objectStorageHelper = new ObjectStorageHelper<Poco>(StorageType.Local);
await objectStorageHelper.SaveAsync(myPoco);

Compare that to the plumbing code that you would have to write otherwise:

var Obj = new Poco() { IntProp = 1, StringProp = "one" };
var filename = “SomeFileName”;
StorageFile file = null;
StorageFolder folder = GetFolder(storageType);
file = await folder.CreateFileAsync(filename, CreationCollisionOption.ReplaceExisting);
IRandomAccessStream writeStream = await file.OpenAsync(FileAccessMode.ReadWrite);
using (Stream outStream = Task.Run(() => writeStream.AsStreamForWrite()).Result)
{
serializer.Serialize(outStream, Obj);
await outStream.FlushAsync();
}

and you can see how ObjectStorageHelper<T> can help save a Windows 8 developer quite a few headaches. ObjectStorageHelper<T> simply requires you to pass it an object to be saved, tell it where to save it (Roaming, Local or Temporary), and you’re done. You don’t even need to give it a filename.

Retrieving an object from storage is equally as simple:

var objectStorageHelper = new ObjectStorageHelper<Poco>(StorageType.Local);
var myPoco = await objectStorageHelper.LoadAsync();

Please check the homepage for the project at http://winrtstoragehelper.codeplex.com/ for (much) more info.

A number of people have used and tested ObjectStorageHelper<T> since those early days and one of those folks in particular, David Burela, was good enough to submit a couple of bugs:

As a result of David’s bug reports and some more extensive testing on my side I have overhauled the initial code that I wrote last October and am confident that it is now much more robust and ready for primetime (check the commit history if you’re interested). The source code (which, again, you can find on Codeplex at http://winrtstoragehelper.codeplex.com/) includes a suite of unit tests to test all of the basic use cases (if you can think of any more please let me know).

If you use this in any of your Windows 8 projects then please let me know. I love getting feedback and I’d also love to know if this is actually being used anywhere.

@Jamiet

ObjectStorageHelper<T> – A WinRT utility for Windows 8

jamiet — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:51:00 GMT

[Disclaimer: This blog post was written in the Developer Preview timeframe and the code has since been heavily updated. Please visit my ObjectStorageHelper feed to see the most up to date information.]

A heads up – this blog post has nothing to do with SQL Server. You have been warned.

Introduction

Last month Microsoft announced the next version of Windows and along with it a new programming model called Windows Runtime (WinRT). Given my long-time interest in the Live Framework API which has re-emerged (sort of) in WinRT I decided to have poke around in what it had to offer. I discovered that any application written for WinRT will have access to three sandboxed folders:

LocalFolder
TemporaryFolder
RoamingFolder

LocalFolder and TemporaryFolder are fairly self-explanatory. RoamingFolder is where the remnants of the Live Framework API rears its head – the contents of that folder gets synced to any device on which the app is installed – thus providing the ability to sync application data between those different devices; I’m not going to go into the scenarios that this feature makes possible but I will say that I think this is one of the most exciting features about Windows 8.

As I poked and prodded at the WinRT classes provided to enable interaction with these three folders I concluded that it wasn’t exactly straightforward and figured I’d have a go at writing something a bit friendlier and hence ObjectStorageHelper<T> was born. It is, in short, a simple class that provides three basic methods:

void DeleteASync()
void SaveASync(T Object)
Task<T> LoadASync()

Saving an object

They simply allow you to manage storage of nearly any object (basically anything that can be serialized as XML). Here’s the code to save an object, its only two lines of code:

[TestMethod]
public void SaveObject()
{
  //Instantiate an object that we want to save
  var myPoco = new Poco() { IntProp = 1, StringProp = "one" };
  //new up ObjectStorageHelper specifying that we want to interact with the Local storage folder
  var objectStorageHelper = new ObjectStorageHelper<Poco>(StorageType.Local);
  //Save the object (via XML Serialization) to the specified folder, asynchronously
  objectStorageHelper.SaveASync(myPoco);
}

The name of the file that gets stored is determined by the name of the type T specified in ObjectStorageHelper<T> and this in turn means that only one object of type T can be stored in each of the three folders; this is by design.
If you have a need to store multiple objects of T then you could use a List instead like this: ObjectStorageHelper<List<T>> or simply adjust the code herein so that it allows you to specify a filename.

Retrieving an object

Retrieving that object thereafter is equally as easy, just two lines of code

[TestMethod]
public async void LoadObject()
{
  //new up ObjectStorageHelper specifying that we want to interact with the Local storage folder
  var objectStorageHelper = new ObjectStorageHelper<Poco>(StorageType.Local);
  //Get the object from the storage folder
  Poco myPoco = await objectStorageHelper.LoadASync();
}

Get the goods

If you want to have a play then the code or compiled assembly is available under the MS-PL license on Codeplex at http://winrtstoragehelper.codeplex.com/. Feedback is welcome!

@jamiet