What is Isolated Storage?
Isolated Storage is a space in Windows phone where you can store the local data of your application. For example if you are making a note application you can store the note made by user in your app in form of text file in Isolated Storage. You can also save images, music files etc in Isolated Storage.
Why to use it?
The next question which comes into your mind is why to use Isolated Storage.
The answer to this question is very simple consider the example of note application given above. Suppose the user makes a note from your application but as the user closes the application the content of note made by user is lost which is similar to RAM in CPU which losses its content when Computer is Shut down. So as to save the note made by user in your application we use Isolated Storage which is similar to ROM in CPU whose content remain unchanged when CPU Shut down.
Different Methods
There are different ways of storing data in Windows phone app
1. IsolatedStorageSettings
2. Folders and files in Isolated Storage
3. Database
Operations
You can perform different manipulation in the Isolated Storage like writing to a file, creating folders and files, reading data, removing file, etc.
Key points
1. All Input/Output operations are restricted to isolated storage and do not have direct access to the underlying operating system file system, which helps to provide security and prevents unauthorized access and data corruption from other apps.
2. If you have two applications that work with the same data, then that data can’t be local to either application. You need to use a web service.
3. Windows Phone applications do not have an imposed quota size because the requirements for each application’s scenario are different. The quota size is unlimited.
I hope this introductory post will be helpful to you. Stay tuned with the rest of posts given below.
Isolated Storage in Windows phone app – Store data in IsolatedStorageSettings
Isolated Storage in Windows phone app – Reading and saving text files
Isolated Storage in Windows phone app – Reading and saving images
