Saving Settings Design

Design Proposals

We can go several routes for saving methods. We may also need a stronger GUID for our add-ins outside of the Mono.Addin's generated Id.

Candidate

We're going with Option 2 (for now) which uses a single JSON file ToolsHub.db.

Proposed Saving Methods

1. Create a JSON file for each add-in, using the add-in's ID as the root file name.
   • PRO: This provides us the ability to separate into smaller chunks for quicker save/load times.
   • PRO: - Only that file will be modified when a page is saved.
   • CON: - Too many files to maintain - creation/cleanup/duplicates.
   • CON: - Needs a file naming strategy
2. Have one massive JSON file for all with the following sub-items.
   • Subitems:
     • Id - Add-in's Id.
     • Key - Property name
     • Value - Property value
   • PRO: - Load once, it's in memory
   • CON: - How do you clean up dead items?
   • CON: - All items will be re-written constantly

[
  {
    "Id": "ShortcutsAddin",
    "Items": {
      "ShortcutItems": "W3siVGl0bGUiOiJDLURyaXZlIiwiVGFyZ2V0IjoiQzpcXCJ9LHsiVGl0bGUiOiJELURyaXZlIiwiVGFyZ2V0IjoiRDpcXCJ9XQ=="
    }
  },
  {
    "Id": "PomodoroTimer",
    "Items": {
      "Duration": "25",
      "BreakShort": "5",
      "BreakLong": "10"
    }
  }
]

3. Use SQLite to manage everything in the same manner as the JSON file.
   • PRO: - Fast, clean, efficient!
   • CON: - Another dependency and project bloat
4. Use an INI file where the Keys are you add-in id or GUID.
   • CON: Same issues as JSON files
   • CON: What's the data-cap and doesn't support multi-line data?