Thread: Completely new to saving Data! need resources to read clear concepts.

Not sure I understand the requirements, do you just want to save user preferences? What context (is the a standalone application, applet, webstart, webapp?) A database might be overkill, rather something like a preference file associated with the application might be more appropriate. If a standalone application, just save the file relative to the application, read the file using standard I/O, and you can format it however you wish (I always prefered xml given its architecture).

(do you just want to save user preferences?)
I THINK(not sure) it will be more then that. My program is a GUI JFrame with border layout effecting what I consider to be a program state. The bulk of it is a "grid" JPanel that is filled with smaller square "tile" JPanels, the tiles use cardlayout to store at max 3 more JPanel custom "people" objects, and at minimum 1. (these "people" can probably be handled by something smaller and text based.)

I still don't understand the requirements. It sounds like you want to save the user's work, or what they've done so when they restart the application the user's work is restored, which sound an awful lot like having the user save their work to a file. You wouldn't need to save the images, just a path so you know where to find them

Originally Posted by JonLane

Okay, that is how i would have done it with out access to any of your minds, and reading it from your words it is starting to seem more reasonable.

So I guess the only question that is left is how to protect this data from idiots?

Almost application out there has similar problems and they run fine 99.9% of the time when it comes to this. Not many take the risk of opening up a file made by their application and change it - they should inherently know the risks associated with doing this. One of the few ways to guard against this is to have a full blow enterprise application in which the data resides on a remote server that the user can only touch using your application (and hence can only communicate using the methods you've defined in your application)

Originally Posted by JonLane

1) I don't mind the images/JPEGs being visible since the format will be windows friendly.
but is there a way I can warn them not to delete, or change the name of the JPEG?

If they reside in the OS and they move things through the OS, then no. If something happens to the image, you can load the file, search for the images, and if one or more don't exist warn the user and ask them to define another image (this is assuming the user defines the images - if the application defines the images then you can wrap them within a jar along with your application)

Originally Posted by JonLane

2) I need my file as protected as possible! I have little experience formatting a load file, so the exception handling is already going to be a nightmare for me.
Is there a way I can set my own 3 character file type?

This is platform specific. Yes you can, but associating the extension to the app depends upon the OS

Originally Posted by JonLane

3) Even if I am able to save my file as my own type, I know its usually possible to open it with say note pad, is there a way I can lock it or make it invisible to the user?

You can encrypt the file if you wish, but like I said above most users won't touch these files because there is absolutely no reason to.