Use combobox in savepath - vb.net

first of all: Sorry for the not so clear title. I didn't know a better way to descripe my question.
I'm building a application that has to save user-specified data to a sdcard on a plc.
I already found out how to connect to that plc but am still working on the saving part.
For the testing i just used:
ds.WriteXml("C:\" & DateTimePicker1.Text & ".xml")
I think it's possible to change it to \192.168.2.16\SDcard\filename but that's not very flexible.
What i would like to have is the ability to take the value from a combobox and use that as the ip adress.
What is the best way to do this? as i don't think it's a simpe thing like making the savepad
(\" & comboIP.selectedvalue & "\Sdcard\" & DateTimePicker1.Text & ".xml") Unfortunately, the SD card is still on it's way so i can't test it yet..
Thanks in advance!

ds.WriteXml("C:\" & comboIP.Text & "\SDCard\" & DateTimePicker1.Text & ".xml")
That works just fine.
You don't really need the SDCard in hand to test this out.
You can simply create temporary variables before the WriteXML function call, set a breakpoint on them, and ensure that they are the correct values beforehand.
e.g.:
Dim sSelectedIP As String = comboIP.Text
Dim sDateTimePicker As String = DateTimePicker1.Text
Dim sCompleteDirectory As String = "C:\" & sSelectedIP & "\SDCard"
If My.Computer.FileSystem.DirectoryExists(sCompleteDirectory) = False Then
My.Computer.FileSystem.CreateDirectory(sCompleteDirectory)
End If
ds.WriteXml(sCompleteDirectory & "\" & sDateTimePicker & ".xml")

Related

Get Unique identifier of a USB stick in VB.net

From what I have read and tried myself I am starting to think this is not possible; but if you don't don't ask you don't get...
I am making a tool that formats USB sticks for staff at work (it adds branding, instructions, handbooks etc). Whilst doing this I am attempting to store the "serial/Unique identifier" for the device in a database so that should I find a lost memory stick I can find out who the original owner was, even if it has been reformated!
I got this snippet from another answer on SO
Dim driveNames As New List(Of String)
For Each drive As DriveInfo In My.Computer.FileSystem.Drives
Try
Dim fso As Scripting.FileSystemObject
Dim oDrive As Scripting.Drive
fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
oDrive = fso.GetDrive(drive.Name)
ListBox1.Items.Add(drive.Name & " " & oDrive.SerialNumber)
Catch ex As Exception
End Try
Next
End Sub
This returns a number, but that changes when the drive is formatted.
I also tried modifying a snippet I got from online (CodeProject) I think.
'Check for valid drive letter argument.
ToolStripStatusLabel1.Text = "Fetching Device Serial ('" & DriveLetter & "' Validating drive letters)"
Dim ValidDriveLetters As String = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
If ValidDriveLetters.IndexOf(DriveLetter) <> -1 Then
If DriveLetter.Length = 1 Then
ToolStripStatusLabel1.Text = "Fetching Device Serial ('" & DriveLetter & "' Creating Disk Management Object)"
Dim Disk As New System.Management.ManagementObject("Win32_LogicalDisk.DeviceID=""" & DriveLetter & ":""")
ToolStripStatusLabel1.Text = "Fetching Device Serial ('" & DriveLetter & "' Creating Disk Property)"
Dim DiskProperty As System.Management.PropertyData
For Each DiskProperty In Disk.Properties
ToolStripStatusLabel1.Text = "Fetching Device Serial ('" & DriveLetter & "' Reading " & DiskProperty.Name & ": " & DiskProperty.Value & ")"
'Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000)
If DiskProperty.Name = "VolumeSerialNumber" Then
Return DiskProperty.Value.ToString '.ToString 'Return the volume serial number.
End If
Next DiskProperty
End If
End If
Return Nothing 'Invalid drive letter.
This currently returns the volume serial (best result I could get right now), that obviously changes when the drive is formatted.
I have looked through the property names but I am yet to find something to uniquely identify the drive itself rather than its volumes.
Is there a property that I can read that would be unique to each device? (even the same the manufacturer/model)
OR
Am I going about this the wrong way? I also considered partitioning the USBs with a hidden partition and then storing the volume serial of that. If an end user formats the drive via Explorer they are only going to wipe the visible partition rather than my secret hidden one...but this seems like a workaround rather than an actual solution?
Please note, I am not a VB.net wizard, web is more my thing (I may need some hand holding at times - but I try my best!)

Concatenating a complex string in VB. NET

I am using START-PROCESS to call MSTEST with multiple arguments that define the container and test settings, however I think it's choking on the way I'm concatenating this. Should I use some other method of constructing this string before putting it into START-PROCESS?
Dim rwSettings As String = "\\PerfvsCtlr2\LoadtestSettings\PerfVSCtlr2forRemote.testsettings"
Dim rwContainer As String = "\\PerfvsCtlr2\LoadTest\LoadTestDefs\Heifer_Interactive_Peak_Workload.loadtest"
Dim rwResults As String = Workload.txtRwResults.Text
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("VS110COMNTOOLS") & "..\Ide\MSTEST.EXE", "/Testsettings:""" & rwSettings & "" & " /Testcontainer:""" & rwContainer & "" & " /Resultsfile:""" & rwResults & "")
The problem is unknown currently, because process.start opens and closes the window far too quickly for me to catch any sort of error message. So my question is two-fold:
Does the above concatenation look correct? Is there a way I can get more information on either the final execution string Process.Start is putting together or the error message it's returning?
You can use Path.Combine to build paths and String.Format to build the arguments for Process.Start:
Dim rwSettings As String = "\\PerfvsCtlr2\LoadtestSettings\PerfVSCtlr2forRemote.testsettings"
Dim rwContainer As String = "\\PerfvsCtlr2\LoadTest\LoadTestDefs\Heifer_Interactive_Peak_Workload.loadtest"
Dim rwResults As String = "Workload.txtRwResults.Text"
Dim fileName = System.IO.Path.Combine(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("VS110COMNTOOLS"), "Ide\MSTEST.EXE")
Dim args = String.Format("/Testsettings:{0} /Testcontainer:{1} /Resultsfile:{2}", rwSettings, rwContainer, rwResults)
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(fileName, args)
However, i must admit thar i'm not sure if this yields the desired result. It might give you an idea anyway.
I suspect that your problem is that you are not closing your quotation marks, for instance:
" /Testcontainer:""" & rwContainer & ""
Should be:
" /Testcontainer:""" & rwContainer & """"
Notice that the double-quotation mark at the end needs to be a quadruple quotation mark. Simply saying "" means an empty string.
Should you use something else? Probably. It would be more readable and efficient if you used StringBuilder or String.Format, but even so, you'll still have to fix the closing quotes issue.

AppendText won't append to the next line in a text file / vb

I'm making a program that lets you add student info to an existing CSV text file but whenever I use append text it adds the new info to part of the last line and then a new line.
I want it to do this:
John Doe,29,Male
John Doe,29,Male
It does this instead:
John Doe,29,MaleJo
hn Doe,29,Male
Note: there isn't actually an empty line between each set of info, I just wanted it to be easy to read when I posted it here.
Here is the code for that section:
Dim swVar As IO.StreamWriter = IO.File.AppendText(frmMain.fileName)
swVar.WriteLine(txtName.Text & "," & txtAge.Text & "," & gender)
swVar.Close()
Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
A handy tool in VS2010 (and others) is snippets - right click Insert Snippets... - lots of code patterns for typical tasks. In your case here is a modified snippet:
Sub AddToFile(textToAdd As String, filePath As String)
My.Computer.FileSystem.WriteAllText(filePath, textToAdd, True)
End Sub
You may want to check/add a vbNewLine to the text being added since one is not automatically added as with WriteLine.
Not a direct reply to your stated problem, but an alternate method.
See if something like this works better:
IO.File.AppendText(frmMain.fileName, vbNewLine & txtName.Text & "," & txtAge.Text & "," & gender & vbNewLine)
AppendText will open write and close all in one operation so there's no need for a separate streamwriter. It also doesn't add newlines so those must be added separately
Unless of course you are doing a series of writes to the same file then something like this would probably be more appropriate:
Dim swVar As New IO.StreamWriter(frmMain.fileName, True)
'write your lines here
swVar.WriteLine(txtName.Text & "," & txtAge.Text & "," & gender)
swVar.Close()

Use the actual value of String as a Formatted Value for TextBlock.Text

So basically I have this:
A WPF window with 1 Button (btn_Convert) and 2 TextBoxes (txtBox_StringValue and txtBox_Result).
In txtBox_StringValue I then paste in a formatted string value:
"This is a Header" & vbCrLf & "======================" & _
vbCrLf & "INFO" & vbCrLf & "======================"
Then when I click btn_Convert I would like the following to happen.
Code:
Dim tempStringValue = txtBox_StringValue.Text
txtBox_Results.Text = tempStringValue
However (obviously), when I do the above the Results TextBox just displays the string again:
"This is a Header" & vbCrLf & "======================" & _
vbCrLf & "INFO" & vbCrLf & "======================"
Instead of:
This is a Header
======================
INFO
So how do I get the value of the string and then strip the containing double-quotes so that the value when assigned acts like it was a variable value set in code, not just passing a string.
From the research I have done I am guessing that I need to use Reflection, however I am not familiar with the Reflection concept and don't know how to approach it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Reflection won't help you in this case. It sounds like what you're talking about is dynamically interpreting some VB.NET source code and output the result of executing that code to another text box. In that case you need to use the Code DOM classes to dynamically build an assembly in memory and execute it.

How do I customize the auto commenting text in Visual Studio?

When I type the trigger the auto comment feature in Visual Studio (by typing "'''" or "///"), most of the XML commenting details show up that I like. However, I typically add the history tag to the documentation so I can track and changes that are made to the method over time.
Is there any way I can customize the auto commenting feature so that it will add the history tag, and potentially some generic Name - Date - Change placeholder text?
I'd suggest using GhostDoc. It generates very smart comments using /// based on your method names and parameters. Also, it is fully customizable.
I think that you could use a tool as dgarcia said but try to chose one that makes the version control insetad, Personally I'm not a huge fan of keep the "history" or track of the project using comments in the code.
If you like that way you could create your own customized version of the snippet, this is easier if you use a tool like Snippy
Copy this file to your
My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Code Snippets[Language]\My Code Snippets\
Just be carefull to change the file if you gonna use it in VB.NET
Hope this help
Just as followup to the comment to Olivier. Here is a copy of the macro now, look for the '' Do History section to see where I inserted code.
''// InsertDocComments goes through the current document using the VS Code Model
''// to add documentation style comments to each function.
''
Sub InsertDocComments()
Dim projectItem As ProjectItem
Dim fileCodeModel As FileCodeModel
Dim codeElement As CodeElement
Dim codeElementType As CodeType
Dim editPoint As EditPoint
Dim commentStart As String
projectItem = DTE.ActiveDocument.ProjectItem
fileCodeModel = projectItem.FileCodeModel
codeElement = fileCodeModel.CodeElements.Item(1)
''// For the sample, don't bother recursively descending all code like
''// the OutlineCode sample does. Just get a first CodeType in the
''// file.
If (TypeOf codeElement Is CodeNamespace) Then
codeElement = codeElement.members.item(1)
End If
If (TypeOf codeElement Is CodeType) Then
codeElementType = CType(codeElement, CodeType)
Else
Throw New Exception("Didn't find a type definition as first thing in file or find a namespace as the first thing with a type inside the namespace.")
End If
editPoint = codeElementType.GetStartPoint(vsCMPart.vsCMPartHeader).CreateEditPoint()
''// Make doc comment start.
commentStart = LineOrientedCommentStart()
If (commentStart.Length = 2) Then
commentStart = commentStart & commentStart.Chars(1) & " "
ElseIf (commentStart.Length = 1) Then
commentStart = commentStart & commentStart.Chars(0) & commentStart.Chars(0) & " "
End If
''// Make this atomically undo'able. Use Try...Finally to ensure Undo
''// Context is close.
Try
DTE.UndoContext.Open("Insert Doc Comments")
''// Iterate over code elements emitting doc comments for functions.
For Each codeElement In codeElementType.Members
If (codeElement.Kind = vsCMElement.vsCMElementFunction) Then
''// Get Params.
Dim parameters As CodeElements
Dim codeFunction As CodeFunction
Dim codeElement2 As CodeElement
Dim codeParameter As CodeParameter
codeFunction = codeElement
editPoint.MoveToPoint(codeFunction.GetStartPoint(vsCMPart.vsCMPartHeader))
''//editPoint.LineUp()
parameters = codeFunction.Parameters
''// Do comment.
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbCrLf)
editPoint.LineUp()
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbTab & commentStart & "<summary>")
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbCrLf)
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbTab & commentStart & "Summary of " & codeElement.Name & ".")
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbCrLf)
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbTab & commentStart & "</summary>")
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbCrLf)
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbTab & commentStart)
For Each codeElement2 In parameters
codeParameter = codeElement2
editPoint.Insert("<param name=" & codeParameter.Name & "></param>")
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbCrLf)
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbTab & commentStart)
Next ''//param
''// Do history tag.
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbCrLf)
editPoint.LineUp()
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbTab & commentStart & "<history>")
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbCrLf)
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbTab & commentStart & "Name MM/DD/YYYY [Created]")
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbCrLf)
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbTab & commentStart & "</history>")
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbCrLf)
editPoint.Insert(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Constants.vbTab & commentStart)
End If ''//we have a function
Next ''//code elt member
Finally
DTE.UndoContext.Close()
End Try
End Sub
For some reason, after a save, rebuild, and a restart of Visual Studio, I'm not getting the history tag. Can anybody see something here I'm missing?
vb uses a xml file to load the defults. It is VBXMLDoc.xml and it depends on what version you are running as to the location of the file.