Transitioned to Json Settings

[d2dyno1]

Resolved / Related Issues

• Closes Transition settings to json format #6033

Details of Changes
This PR transitions registry based SettingsViewModel to json settings. Now importing and exporting your settings is possible!
This PR also introduces BaseJsonSettingsModel v3 with refactored codebase and ISettingsSharingContext for sharing one settings file across multiple BaseJsonSettingsModel instances. This allows for settings organization while keeping everything in one place.

Benefits

• More performant settings access thanks to caching
• Flexible settings store allows serialization and deserialization of various object types
• All-new BaseJsonSettingsModel v3 with reworked codebase and support of sharing settings instances
• Flexible settings access stores all settings in one file which allows easy importing/exporting of your configuration.

Regressions

• Potential regressions and bugs may occur

Note for Contributors

• This PR also includes IServiceProvider for injecting dependencies into classes (currently only used for injecting setting services). The IoC container was added in mind of further expansion.
• SettingsViewModel is deprecated and should be no longer used for storing settings. It is only used for merging the settings database.
• With these changes also comes a new way to access settings:

BEFORE:

bool val = App.AppSettings.ShowBundlesWidget;

AFTER:

IUserSettingsService userSettingsService = Ioc.Default.GetService<IUserSettingsService>();
bool val = userSettingsService.WidgetsSettingsService.ShowBundlesWidget;

Validation

• Built the app

For #4180, #5195

[d2dyno1]

@yaichenbaum Ready for review!

[winston-de]

I'm getting a null reference exception at startup on line 338 of MainPageViewModel.cs

System.NullReferenceException: 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object.'

InterfaceDispatchCell00ADAFE8_$0_Files.Services.IUserSettingsService_slot_9(...) returned null.

[gave92]

@d2dyno1 I've pushed a few changes. Feel free to revert them if you disagree. Basically:

• Added registration for StartupSettingsService in App.xaml.cs, should fix issue reported by @winston-de
• Removed old settings definitions from SettingsViewModel (they were only used for porting)
• Track settings changes through AppCenter

[d2dyno1]

I've just noticed them, thank you ❤️ From the initial look, these look fine so I'm going to keep them in. I'll merge some other settings soon and then it's finished!

[d2dyno1]

@d2dyno1 you probably know this already but since the new settings are not "observable" some things do not work, e.g. toggling the preview pane or hiding/showing hidden files.

We did hook up PropertyChanged event (found in SettingsViewModel) to get notified when a setting is updated, I've changed it since and now we hook up the OnSettingChangedEvent. Is that not working? Could you please test for me if this line is executed? (since VS is preventing me from running the app) @gave92

[gave92]

The problem is that settings do not implement INotifyPropertyChanged so this kind of things don't work : IsChecked="{x:Bind UserSettingsService.PreviewPaneSettingsService.PreviewPaneEnabled, Mode=TwoWay}".

[d2dyno1]

@gave92 I've fixed the issue. The problem actually had nothing to do with INotifyPropertyChanged. It was simply due to events firing in different classes -> now they're redirected to one event BaseJsonSettingsModel.OnSettingChangedEvent (in IUserSettings) through ISettingsSharingContext

[gave92]

Looks mostly fixed 👍 This setting does not work without restart: IsVerticalTabFlyoutEnabled (seems the only one that relied on INotifyPropertyChanged, all the rest are handled in code behind through settings changed event)

[BanCrash]

@d2dyno1 could you check if a fresh install is working?

If I make a fresh install of this branch, it will give me a lot of errors and won't work. If I install first last main and then install this version so it gets updated, it works as expected.

[d2dyno1]

@d2dyno1 could you check if a fresh install is working?

If I make a fresh install of this branch, it will give me a lot of errors and won't work. If I install first last main and then install this version so it gets updated, it works as expected.

I've just ran a fresh build of iusersettings. Didn't have any problems with it

[BanCrash]

@d2dyno1 could you check if a fresh install is working?
If I make a fresh install of this branch, it will give me a lot of errors and won't work. If I install first last main and then install this version so it gets updated, it works as expected.

I've just ran a fresh build of iusersettings. Didn't have any problems with it

That's odd, I just tried again uninstalling Files-Dev and then debugging as debug and it throws a lot of exceptions about "Value cannot be null.". Are you debugging on debug or on release?

[d2dyno1]

Debug x64

[gave92]

LRGTM (R is for "really")

[d2dyno1]

Lereallygimate lol