python addin: best practise for persisting custom setting?

Question

Dear,

For the development of a Python addin (extension) for ArcMap I would like to manage a user setting which persists over multiple arcMap sessions.

I have been exploring several options with an xml settings file. 
One of the things I found out that it is not possible to directly use a file included in the plugin's Install folder: the contents of this folder are overwritten in the Addin AssemblyCache folder so the original state of the settingsfile is reverted for each new ArcMap session.

I managed to find a solution by copying the settingsfile to a general accessible location and check for existence each time the extension loads. However, this is a rather devious solution. Any other ideas of how to accomplish this?

Cheers, Laurens

Laurensvan_der_Burgt · Answer

Thanks for the quick responses!
Indeed useful to ensure that each user will gets a separate instance of the config file.

Luke_Pinner · Answer

Write it to %APPDATA%\your_adddin_name\your_config_file.xml.

This way, it gets written to a users profile and will not get overwritten by later users (who will get their own config file).

e.g.import os
config=os.path.join(os.environ['APPDATA'],'your_addin_name', 'your_config_file.xml')

markdenil · Answer

Devious, perhaps, but writing to some location in the user's personal directory is the usual way of doing it.
For example, Arc places the default geodatabase and workspace there.