Read INI in Visual Basic vb.NET - vb.net

Question

I'm trying to read a INI file then dump the values into the registry for a setup application to function.
The INI file looks like this
[Setup Components]
Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere Client=Yes
Borland Database Engine=Yes
BDERoot=c:\Program Files\Borland\BDE
Program Shortcuts=Yes
ODBC Data Service Name=Yes
Local Client = Yes
Sybase Admin = Yes
Sybase Directory= C:\Program Files\SQL Anywhere 16
DBRoot=c:\Database
Word Link=Yes
Installation Root Folder=c:\program
FireDAC=DB=asa16;eng=ENGINE;dbn=DBNAME;links=TCPIP{Host=127.0.0.1;Port=2638}
[Program Shortcuts]
Desktop=Yes
Start Menu=Yes
Program Title=PROGRAM
EXE Pathname=c:\program.exe
Parameters=DBNAME
Starting Directory=c:\
Icon=icon.ICO
[ODBC Data Service Name]
Data Service Name=DBNAME
Database File Name=c:\database\database.db
Database Name=DBNAME
Server Name=ENGINE
Comm Links=TCPIP{}
PrefetchBuffer=6000
PrefetchRows=50
CommBufferSize=1460
Compress=no
[Service]
Service Name=SQLANYs_DBNAME
Display Name=SQL Anywhere - DBNAME
Service Group=SQLANYServer
Params=-n DBNAME -x TCPIP{} "C:\database\database.db" -n DBNAME
So I need all those items to be dumped into the registry easily.
I'm using Visual Studio 2015, I did attempt to use Ludvik Jerabek's INI reader (http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/21896/INI-Reader-Writer-Class-for-C-VB-NET-and-VBScript) but had no luck getting that to function!
The code i did use for the above was the following:
Dim ini = New IniFile()
ini.Load("setup.ini")
Dim readValue = ini.Sections("Service").Keys("Service Name")
MessageBox.Show(readValue.ToString)
When running this code i got the following error : "Conversion from string "Service" to type "Integer" is not valid. -Also this method means naming each and every key in the INI file which would be quite some task!
I then went down another method after reading some help questions on here and i used the following:
Private Declare Auto Function GetPrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpAppName As String,
ByVal lpKeyName As String,
ByVal lpDefault As String,
ByVal lpReturnedString As StringBuilder,
ByVal nSize As Integer,
ByVal lpFileName As String) As Integer
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim sb As StringBuilder
sb = New StringBuilder(500)
Dim readVal = GetPrivateProfileString("Service", "Service Name", "", sb, sb.Capacity, "setup.ini")
MessageBox.Show(readVal.ToString)
End Sub
However this just returns "0"
Any help would be grateful to find a way to get this reading from the INI and dumping to the registry

Answer 1

Using the given IniFile class, this will get you to the config setting values:
Private Sub INIButtonTest_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles INIButtonTest.Click
Try
Dim iniFilePath As String = "H:\Dev\StackOverflow\StackOverflowTest\StackOverflowApp\bin\Debug\test.ini"
Dim myIniFile As New IniFile
myIniFile.Load(iniFilePath)
Dim myValue As String = getIniValue(myIniFile, "Service", "Service Name")
If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(myValue) Then
MessageBox.Show(String.Format("Found value: [{0}]", myValue))
End If
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show(String.Concat("Something went wrong:", ex.Message))
End Try
End Sub
Private Function getIniValue(iniFileInstance As IniFile, sectionName As String, sectionKey As String) As String
Dim myValue As String = String.Empty
For Each sect As IniFile.IniSection In iniFileInstance.Sections
If sect.Name = sectionName Then
For Each key As IniFile.IniSection.IniKey In sect.Keys
If key.Name = sectionKey Then
myValue = key.GetValue
Exit For
End If
Next
Exit For
End If
Next
Return myValue
End Function

Answer 2

As an alternate, the code for the original approach is very close to correct, but GetPrivateProfileString doesn't actually exist in Kernel32.dll. You need to add a W to the name, which makes the corrected code:
' With these imports
Imports System.ComponentModel
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports System.Text
' Note the W on the function name
Private Declare Auto Function GetPrivateProfileStringW Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpAppName As String,
ByVal lpKeyName As String,
ByVal lpDefault As String,
ByVal lpReturnedString As StringBuilder,
ByVal nSize As Integer,
ByVal lpFileName As String) As Integer
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim sb As New StringBuilder(500)
Dim result As Integer = GetPrivateProfileStringW("Service", "Service Name", "", sb, sb.Capacity, "setup.ini")
If result > 0 Then
MessageBox.Show(sb.ToString())
Else
Dim ex As New Win32Exception(Marshal.GetLastWin32Error())
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)
End If
End Sub
If you prefer not to use the W, or you want to call your function something different, you can also use the DllImportAttribute and change the function declaration to:
<DllImport("Kernel32.dll", CharSet:=CharSet.Auto,
SetLastError:=True, EntryPoint:="GetPrivateProfileStringW")>
Private Shared Function GetPrivateProfileString(ByVal lpAppName As String,
ByVal lpKeyName As String,
ByVal lpDefault As String,
ByVal lpReturnedString As StringBuilder,
ByVal nSize As Integer,
ByVal lpFileName As String) As Integer
End Function

Answer 3

This is what I have used since VB 3.0 and it has worked with all versions of windows since 3.1. There have been a few modifications to make it fit into the conventions of the newer dev tools but essentially they are the same routines.
These must be in a public class or in the public area of a form:
Public Declare Function OSGetPrivateProfileString% Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetPrivateProfileStringA"(ByVal AppName As String, ByVal KeyName As String, ByVal keydefault As String, ByVal ReturnString As String, ByVal NumBytes As Integer, ByVal FileName As String)
Public Declare Function OSWritePrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" Alias "WritePrivateProfileStringA"(ByVal AppName As String, ByVal KeyName As String, ByVal keydefault As String, ByVal FileName As String) As Integer
Then, somewhere in your form's code area or if you have a "functions.vb" class (where the above would be declared) place these two:
Public Shared Function GetINIString(ByVal strItem As String, ByVal strDefault As String, ByVal strSection As String, ByVal filename As String) As String
Const BUFFERSIZE As Integer = 16768
Dim strTemp As New String(Chr(0), BUFFERSIZE)
Dim stringSize As Long = 0
stringSize = OSGetPrivateProfileString%(strSection, strItem, strDefault, strTemp, BUFFERSIZE, filename)
Return Strings.Left(strTemp, stringSize)
End Function
AND
Public Shared Sub PutINIString(strItem As String, strValue As String, strSection As String, iniFilename As String)
Dim i As Integer = 0
i = OSWritePrivateProfileString(strSection, strItem, strValue, iniFilename)
End Sub
This continues to work in VB 2010