clsPreferences

clsPreferences is the sole public service in this library: a serializable, in-memory, per-user preference cache that eagerly loads all Preference groups for the authenticated portal user on construction and mediates scoped reads and writes against that cache, deferring all durable persistence to SAIF.Framework.Preferences.PreferenceData until an explicit Save() call. It is consumed as a same-repo project reference by SAIF.Presentation.Web.Core.Infragistics103, SAIF.Presentation.Web.MVC (clsModelBase.Preferences), SAIF.Presentation.Web.Controls.V2.Menu (SAIFMenu), and SAIF.Presentation.Web.Controls.AJAX.Infragistics103 (InfragisticsGridCustomizer).

Purpose

• Cache all preference groups for the current data-portal user in memory on construction, avoiding a database round-trip on every subsequent read.
• Provide scoped read/write access to preference key-value pairs via PrefScope, so consumers can store settings at application, page, or web granularity (BR-PREF-001).
• Serve as the persistence boundary for preference changes, batching in-memory mutations until an explicit Save() call writes them to the Oracle-backed store.

Context

• Namespace: SAIF.Presentation
• Assembly/package: SAIF.BOF.Presentation.Web.Infragistics103 (NuGet package; this project's .vb source is bundled and recompiled by consumers rather than shipped as a compiled binary)*

Public members

Member	Signature	Purpose
Item (default indexer)	Item(inKey As Object) As Object	Returns a preference value at PrefScope.PageLevel for the current application/page — the shorthand read path most consumers use.
Item (default indexer, overload)	Item(inKey As Object, inScope As PrefScope) As Object	Returns a preference value for the current application at an explicitly chosen scope, enabling application- or web-level lookups.
Item (default indexer, overload)	Item(inApplication As String, inPage As String, inKey As String) As Object	Returns a preference value for an explicitly named application/page/key combination, case-insensitively — used when reading another application's or page's preferences rather than the current context's.
Count	Count As Integer (ReadOnly)	Reports the number of loaded Preference groups (not individual keys) for the current user, useful for diagnostics or conditional logic on whether any preferences exist.
OverridePage	OverridePage As String = ""	Lets non-web callers (e.g., Windows Forms) explicitly set the "page" identity instead of relying on fragile stack-trace inference; must be set immediately after construction and before any scoped call.
Add	Add(inKey As Object, inValue As Object)	Adds or replaces a page-level preference key-value pair in memory (BR-PREF-002); does not persist until Save() is called.
Add (overload)	Add(inKey As Object, inValue As Object, inScope As PrefScope)	Adds or replaces a preference key-value pair at the specified scope in memory; does not persist until Save() is called.
Delete	Delete()	Clears preference items across all loaded application/page groups for the user, not just the current application — a broader operation than Clear()*.
Clear	Clear(inScope As PrefScope)	Clears all preference items for the current application at the given scope, leaving the group itself in place.
Remove	Remove(inKey As Object)	Removes a single page-level preference key if present; wrapped in clsLogTrace method tracing.
Remove (overload)	Remove(inKey As Object, inScope As PrefScope)	Removes a single preference key at the specified scope if present; wrapped in clsLogTrace method tracing.
Save	Save() As Boolean	Persists all in-memory preference groups matching the current application to the Oracle-backed store via PreferenceData.SavePreferences; the return value is always False regardless of outcome, so success can only be inferred from the absence of a thrown ApplicationException (BR-PREF-003, BR-PREF-004).
New (constructor)	New(inUserID As String, inApplication As String)	Initializes the instance and eagerly loads all preference groups for the data-portal-authenticated user (not necessarily inUserID) and the given application (BR-PREF-005).
New (constructor, overload)	New(inUserID As String, inApplication As String, preferencesRootDirectory As String)	Accepts a preferencesRootDirectory parameter documented as enabling file-based preference storage, but the parameter is ignored — the implementation always loads from the Oracle-backed PreferenceData, so the XML doc comment and actual behavior diverge*.

Behavioral notes

• Construction always resolves the effective user context from IDataPortalInfo.UserID (obtained from the Oracle data layer), not from the inUserID constructor argument — callers should not assume the instance is scoped to the literal string they passed in*.
• Page identity resolution differs by execution context: web requests parse HttpContext.Current.Request.Path; non-web contexts use OverridePage if set, otherwise infer the calling Windows Form's type name via System.Diagnostics.StackTrace reflection — a mechanism sensitive to call-stack depth and fragile if the class hierarchy changes*.
• All persistence is hard-wired to the Oracle DB user "CLM", regardless of the consuming application (BR-PREF-005).
• The private FormatKey method exists but has no discoverable caller in this file, suggesting it may be vestigial from an earlier key-formatting scheme**.

Constraints and usage notes

• Because Save()'s boolean return value is always False, consumers must catch ApplicationException to detect save failures rather than checking the return value (BR-PREF-004).
• The 3-argument constructor's preferencesRootDirectory parameter should not be relied upon for file-based storage behavior — it has no effect on the current implementation*.
• OverridePage must be set immediately after construction (before any Item/Add/Remove/Save call) to take effect, per its own XML documentation remark.

Note: Statements marked with * were inferred from code structure, naming conventions, or contextual evidence where direct confirmation was not available in source artifacts. Statements marked with ** could not be confirmed; treat as unknown until verified.

Sources

• SAIF.Presentation\clsPreferences.vb