I am trying to store Style-related properties for calendar items in a database. This is easy for Properties like LineColor and FillColor because I can get their 'ARGB' values. But I cannot figure out how to do this for the Brush property when it is originally set to a LinearGradientBrush. For example, I can set the Brush property with code like the following:

Dim app As New MindFusion.Scheduling.Appointment
Dim argb1 As Int32 = -1 'White
Dim argb2 As Int32 = -16776961 ' Blue
Dim angle As Single = 90

app.Style.Brush = New MindFusion.Drawing.LinearGradientBrush (Color.FromArgb(argb1), Color.FromArgb(argb2), angle)

But if the user changes the Brush settings, I want to retrieve the new colors and angle. How can I get those?

That looks good, but I would up going with code like the following that uses the Brush.ToString property:

  Select Case item.Style.Brush.ToString
     Case "Gradient"
        ' Code here to retrieve properties of
        ' LinearGradientBrush settings
     Case "Solid"
        ' Code here to retrieve properties of
        ' Solidrush settings
  End Select

Serializing the brush is the best solution indeed. This way you don't have to worry about the brush type and serializing individual brush properties. As for the last four zeros in the brush's string representation, they are as follows:

1. The number of elements in the Factors array of the brush's Blend property.
2. The number of elements in the Positions array of the brush's Blend property.
3. The number of elements in the Colors array of the brush's InterpolationColors property.
4. The number of elements in the Positions array of the brush's InterpolationColors property.

If there are any elements in these arrays, there are more entries following each number.

Meppy