Persistent Data Recommendation

[HISEnberg]

I have a few buttons on my UI and I want their data to persist before and after the UI is constructed/deconstructed. Just wondering what the best folder to dump JSON Data into would be? I imagine putting it in the AppData folder that is created would be the best but I am open to recommendations. Currently I am just saving it to the Expansions folder for no particular reason. Also any recommendations on best practices here is welcome!

	const var STATE_FILENAME = "buttonStates.json";
	const var btns= Content.getAllComponents("Button");
	const var stateFilePath = FileSystem.getFolder(FileSystem.Expansions).getChildFile(STATE_FILENAME);
// Presumably just change this to FileSystem.AppData
	
    /** Save button states to file */
    inline function saveStates(states)
    {
        Engine.dumpAsJSON(states, stateFilePath.toString(0));
        return true;
    }
    
    /** Load button states */
    inline function loadButtonStates()
    {
        if (stateFilePath.isFile())
        {
            return Engine.loadFromJSON(stateFilePath.toString(0));
        }
        
        return {};
    }
    
    /** Save state for a specific button */
    inline function saveButtonState(buttonId, state)
    {
        local states = loadButtonStates();
        states[buttonId] = state;
        return saveStates(states);
    }
    
    /** Get state for a specific button */
    inline function getButtonState(buttonId, defaultValue)
    {
        local states = loadButtonStates();
       
        if (isDefined(states[buttonId]))
        {
            return states[buttonId];
        }
        
        return defaultValue;
    }
    
    /** Button callback function */
    inline function onButtonControl(component, value)
    {
        // Use component's ID as the button ID
        local id = component.getId();
        saveButtonState(id, value);
    }
    
    /** Initialize buttons on startup */
    inline function initializeButtons()
    {
        for (i = 0; i < btns.length; i++)
        {
            local id = btns[i].getId();
            local savedState = getButtonState(id, 0);
            btns[i].setValue(savedState);
        }
    }
    
    // Set up callbacks for all buttons
    for (i = 0; i < btns.length; i++)
    {
        btns[i].setControlCallback(onButtonControl);
    }
    
    // Initialize buttons
    initializeButtons();

     
}

[d.healey]

@HISEnberg said in Persistent Data Recommendation:

before and after the UI is constructed/deconstructed.

What do you mean by this?

[HISEnberg]

@d-healey For each instance when the plugin is loaded (initiated)*

[d.healey]

@HISEnberg Writing it to a file is the correct method, I'd put it in the app data folder. I'd use the File/FileSystem APIs rather than dumpAsJSON.

Do you need special handling if there are multiple instances of the plugin in use?

[ustk]

@d-healey said in Persistent Data Recommendation:

Do you need special handling if there are multiple instances of the plugin in use?

That is the question that made me abandon this idea... Gosh... You have a solution for this?

[d.healey]

@ustk I've seen someone else came up with a solution to give each instance a temporary unique id per session, but I haven't explored it myself.

[HISEnberg]

@d-healey Wonderful I'll see if I can rewrite with just the File (System) APIs in that case! Luckily for me these are "universal settings" so they should be applied cross each instance of the plugin.