saving a windows form and it's content to reload later.

[Daryl]

Is is possible to save a windows form and it's content then load it at a
later time.
I have a form (vs2k8) which has multiple tabs and such, it is used as a
search screen to setup search criteria. I now have a need to save all the
form data so it can be selected at another time , and run at another time.
Is this possible? How could I do this?

 

[John Bundy]

It sounds like you are talking about something like Ctl+F that lets you
define something to search for. If you are talking about something that does
this, but resets when you close the program then you just need to hide the
form.
If that is not the case, then I have had success with 2 methods:
1. Look into My.Settings to store control setting and value data
2. Create an xml or the like config file that writes the settings into a
file, this way lets you persist data but still make updates when you want to.

 

[Daryl]

The form is a "custom build your own search" page.
Once they hit the "search" button, I need to save off all the values and
controls so that I can let the user select the previous search form a
dropdown.
Not sure how my.settings will work. OR build and xml file. Do you have any
pointers to sample code?

 

[John Bundy]

Here, i built a sample on my blog for how to use my.settings

http://jmbundy.blogspot.com/2009/11/my-settings-persisting-data.html