I'm starting to work on a project where it would be quite useful to have something like a project file that holds all the data being used in a form that can't be opened/modified/used in anything but this application.Kind of like excel has an xls format or something like that. Right now all I know how to do is creating a data file that can be opened in notepad.Is there a special word for this?
Creating a new type of project file
java;c++
There are two quite different answers, depending on whether you don't care that other programs will not be able to process the project file, or whether you want to make sure that they can't.In the first case, this is simply a matter of inventing a new file format. File format is the technical term; search for it, and you will get lots of information about how to choose one (binary vs. text-based, upwards compatibility, efficiency etc.).In the second case you're talking about security from outside influence. That is a much more difficult thing to achieve, and in fact it is virtually impossible if the computer that is supposed to run your application is also supposed to be able to open such a file without user intervention (e.g. typing a password). However you protect your internal data, an attacker can always trace what your program is doing when it reads the project file and copy those actions.