Hi all. In my contact manager program I have been storing information by reading and writing comma delimited files for each individual contact, and storing notes in a file for each note, and I'm wondering how I could go about shrinking them all into one file effectively. I have attempted using data entry tools in the visual studio toolbox and template class, though I have never quite figured out how to use them. What would be especially convenient is if I could store data as data type IOwner (a class I created) as opposed to strings.

I'd also need to figure out how to tell the program what to do when a file is opened (I've noticed in the properties how to associate a file type with the program though am not sure how to tell it what to do when it's opened).

Edit:

How about rephrasing the question: I have a class IContact with various properties some of them being lists of other class objects. I have a public list of IContact. Can I write Contacts as List(Of IContact) to a file as opposed to a bunch of strings?

Second part of the question: I have associated .cms files with my program. But if a user opens the file, what code should the program run through in an attempt to deal with the file? This file is going to contain data that the program needs to read, how do I tell it to read a file when the program is opened vicariously because the file was opened?

Does this make the question clearer?