# Walkthrough - Fixing Data Persistence (Final)

I have resolved the issue where UI fields were not persisting after closing and reopening QGIS, including improvements for robust loading and proactive saving.

## Changes Made

### 1. Proactive Persistence
- In [main_dialog.py](file:///home/jmbernales/qgispluginsdev/sec_interp/gui/main_dialog.py), I moved `save_settings()` to the very beginning of `accept_handler`. This ensures settings are saved even if validation fails (e.g., missing output path).
- Added automatic `save_settings()` call upon any successful **Preview**. This remembers parameters as soon as the user sees a valid result.

### 2. Robust Settings Hub
In [main_dialog_settings.py](file:///home/jmbernales/qgispluginsdev/sec_interp/gui/main_dialog_settings.py):
- **Multi-scope Support**: Now checks both `SecInterp` and `SecInterpUI` project entries for backward compatibility.
- **Layer Name Fallback**: Saves and restores layers by both ID and Name.
- **Type Safety**: Implemented `_parse_setting_value` to correctly convert stored strings ("True", "50000.0", "None") back to their native Python types.
- **Signal Safety**: Blocked signals during manual resolution updates to prevent UI suggestions from overwriting loaded user values.

### 3. Immediate Disk Write
In [config.py](file:///home/jmbernales/qgispluginsdev/sec_interp/core/config.py), added `self.settings.sync()` to the `set` method to ensure QGIS writes changes to the disk immediately without waiting for application exit.

### 4. Validation UI Fix
Fixed an `AttributeError` in [main_dialog.py](file:///home/jmbernales/qgispluginsdev/sec_interp/gui/main_dialog.py) where a failing validation was triggering a crash instead of showing the error message box.

## Verification Results

### Automated Tests
- Created `tests/gui/test_main_dialog_settings.py` verifying:
    - Multi-scope project loading.
    - Type parsing logic.
    - Layer name fallback restoration.
- Ran all 110 existing GUI tests, all passed.

### Manual Verification
The user confirmed that settings are now being loaded automatically upon opening the dialog:
`2026-01-03T12:12:04 INFO Settings loaded successfully from Project/Global config`

### Manual Verification Path
1. Open SecInterp dialog.
2. Select layers, enter a Buffer Distance.
3. Generate a **Preview** or click **OK**.
4. Restart QGIS.
5. All selections are restored.

## Release 2.5.0

I successfully executed the official release process for version **2.5.0**:
1.  **Changelog Consolidation**: Merged all recent features (3D Export, Settings Page) and stability fixes (Persistence, QA) into a single unified release entry.
2.  **Metadata Synchronization**: Updated `metadata.txt` and `MAINTENANCE_LOG.md` to reflect the new version and its date (2026-01-03).
3.  **Clean Packaging**: Compiled all translations and help files, generating a production-ready ZIP: `dist/sec_interp.2.5.0.zip`.
4.  **Deployment**:
    - Committed release preparation.
    - Created git tag `v2.5.0`.
    - Pushed code and tag to GitHub repository.

## Final Verification
- Full test suite passed: **319 tests** (including 4 skipped as expected).
- Verified accessibility of the new release tag on GitHub.
