C#•10mo ago

Best Practices for Configuration Management software development (WPF C#)

This case its like a lot of radio buttons, dropdowns (with 10, 20, 600+ options), strings, integers, floats.
A lot means 1000s of each of those.
Configuration s/w means: device A's IP is 000.000.000.000 its FUNCTION is enabled and so on

What are the best approaches for managing this configuration storage and management? Would a relational database (SQL) be more efficient, or would a NoSQL or file-based approach (XML/JSON) be better for handling dynamic settings and historical data?

Additionally, are there any best practices for keeping the UI in sync with fast-changing data in a WPF C# application?

Nasdack•2/19/25, 4:52 AM

Your combo boxes need to be searchable

Nasdack•2/19/25, 4:52 AM

Not sure what you mean by 'FUNCTION'

Nasdack•2/19/25, 4:55 AM

A relational database is faster in returning queries but slower in r/w speeds generally speaking

Nasdack•2/19/25, 4:55 AM

Your data structure will determine which one works best

Nasdack•2/19/25, 4:56 AM

But definitely do not go the file-based approach

Nasdack•2/19/25, 4:57 AM

For UI to listen to data changes, you can use INPC or simply the MVVM toolkit

NNasdack Not sure what you mean by 'FUNCTION'

V A R I A N TOP•2/19/25, 7:13 AM

my bad for not specifying, I meant it as a combo box

NNasdack For UI to listen to data changes, you can use INPC or simply the MVVM toolkit

V A R I A N TOP•2/19/25, 7:15 AM

oh okay, will check it out for sure, thanks

NNasdack A relational database is faster in returning queries but slower in r/w speeds ge...

dance?•2/19/25, 7:15 AM

yes but relational and nosql are for different aims, relational keeps relations between data so it maintains consistency, while nosql is either graphs or flat

dance?•2/19/25, 7:15 AM

in this case if the filter is just a simple ip i think a regular sql would be enough
probably sqlite, if you have no other needs

V A R I A N TOP•2/19/25, 7:24 AM

okay

V A R I A N TOP•2/19/25, 7:24 AM

understandable

V A R I A N TOP•2/19/25, 7:25 AM

if you don't mind let me ask this

V A R I A N TOP•2/19/25, 7:25 AM

for most tables if there is no relations to one another. would the file based ones would just do the work. something like xml or json. so that the deployed software won't have to ask for permissions that a sql db might ask.

dance?•2/19/25, 7:28 AM

that's why i said use sqlite, it's an in memory db in the process of your program, not an external service
i would reserve using a file only for special cases with real constraints
im not saying to me would be out of question, but there should really be reasons to do that

V A R I A N TOP•2/19/25, 7:31 AM

hmm

V A R I A N TOP•2/19/25, 7:31 AM

okay

V A R I A N TOP•2/19/25, 7:32 AM

thats really helpful I'll see if that (sqlite) works out for me.

V A R I A N TOP•2/19/25, 7:32 AM

thanks

dance?•2/19/25, 7:34 AM

usual requirements are if you need to update this data remotely (or if there are deploy procedures), if multiple users need to connect to it contemporaneously, if you have to do backups of some sort
for stuff like that a full fledged db would be better, if not sqlite is fine

V A R I A N TOP•2/19/25, 7:36 AM

i see

V A R I A N TOP•2/19/25, 7:37 AM

okay. got it

dance?•2/19/25, 7:50 AM

sorry to continue ranting, one last thing: leaving a text file in the folder that your program would read to get the data leaves the file open to modifications from users, and so one day then they'll call you to say "hey, i can't start the program" (had this happen to me in the past); file would always need to be parsed and be verified in its entirety, which then would have the consequence that you (or whoever) would start having multiple versions: data.json, data_bk.json, data (1).json, data.json-20250219, data.json.last, and so on

Ddance?yes but relational and nosql are for different aims, relational keeps relations ...

Nasdack•2/19/25, 9:49 AM

yeah I did mention his data structure would be the final decision maker