How to add an inner (nested) class to a library class? - vb.net

I'm trying to add a custom event generator inner class to reuse through several Forms. I was at first just going to put it the relevant code inside a #Region and copy-paste it into the code, but I realized a better way would maybe be to do it in a nested class. So I want to basically do
Partial Class Form
Public Class VerifyGenerator
...
End Class
End Class
Public Class MyForm
Inherits Form
Public Class MyVerifyGenerator
...
End Class
End Class
If there's a better / more logical solution to this, I'm all ears. In the Form there's logic to find all the TextBoxes with VerifyHandlers and subscribe them to the event when the Form generates it, custom logic to disable (most) other Controls

Could you just create a base class that exposed that functionality and inherit from it?
Public MustInherit Class VerifyerForm
Inherits Form
' your stuff here
End Class
Public Class MyForm
Inherits VerifyerForm
End Class

Related

Inheriting class of one form to another form class

I have two form windows form1.vb and form2.vb. My code so far:
'form1.vb
class form1
function print(byval i as integer) as boolean
End class
'form2.vb
class form2
inherits form1
end class
The code can not compile and it is showing the following error: Error 1 Base class 'form1' specified for class 'form2' cannot be different from the base class.
Is there any way to inherit one class from one form to another class of another form as I am writting some common functions which I dont want to rewrite every where?
Please guide me in correct direction.
goto > Form2.Designer.vb and change
Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
to
Inherits WindowsApplication1.Form1 or Inherits Form1

VB.NET move nested Classes to own File

I have a rather untypical situation:
When I build an Application, I created a class witch contained several nested classes. At the beginning, this was manageable, but now so the file is so big, that I want to move each nested class to its own file.
Is this possible in VB.NET, or do I need to move each nested class out of the "mother" class?
I have Resharper installed, if this helps..
Structure:
Public Class A
Public Class NestedA
End Class
Public Class NestedB
End Class
End Class
Use Partial class:
Partial Public Class ParcialTest
Public Class NestedA
End Class
End Class
And in another file:
Partial Public Class ParcialTest
Public Class NestedB
End Class
End Class
Compiler will merge all these Partial class parts into one for you.

How to get the class type in a inherited shared method

Folks;
Code looks like:
Public Class MasterA
Inherits Underling
End Class
Public Class MasterB
Inherits Underling
End Class
Public Mustinherit Class Underling
Sub DoSomething()
Me.GetType 'Using the instance, I can get the class.
end sub
Shared function() as ???? 'How can I define the return type based on the class that inherited me?
'Me.GetType 'Won't work as this is a shared function with no instance 'Me'
End Function
End class
OK. The question is: is there a way to get at the class type from within a shared function that was inherited by another class?
What I'm building is an XML serializer/desrializer as an inheritable class so that classes that inherit it can be serilized to an XML file, and back again. Rather than writing a serializer/deserializer for each type of class I want to do this with, I'd like to just inherit the functionality.
To do that, though, requires that I be able to ascertain the clas that inherited me in the shared function.
You could get the desired behavior with a generic base class, my VB is a little rusty so you might find stray parens or brackets. This would really be the only way to get a type reference to an inheriting class in a shared base class function.
Public Mustinherit Class Underling(Of T)
Sub DoSomething()
Me.GetType 'Using the instance, I can get the class.
end sub
Shared function() As T
' GetType(T) should get the type at this point
End Function
End class
Public Class MasterA
Inherits Underling(Of MasterA)
End Class
Public Class MasterB
Inherits Underling(Of MasterB)
End Class
As a side note it does seem like a rather weird solution to handle XmlSerialization rather than through your own serializer implementation or XmlSerializer

VB.NET inheritance - do all properties in the derived classes have to be declared in the base class?

I'm refactoring, and have run into a roadblock.
Background:
I have a base class and several inherited derived classes. The derived classes don't always need to have the same properties. If any properties are shared among the derived classes, those properties would live at the base class level ('Contents', for example).
Similarly, GoodDocument below has 'GoodThings' but would not want/need to have 'BadThings'.
I want to treat instances of both 'GoodDocument' and 'BadDocument' as type 'Document'
public mustinherit class Document
public property Contents as string
public sub new()...
end class
public class GoodDocument
inherits Document
public property GoodThings as string
public sub new()...
end class
public class BadDocument
inherits Document
public property BadThings as string
public sub new()...
end class
The 'DocumentWriter' class will also have several derived classes: ('GoodDocumentWriter' and 'BadDocumentWriter').
I need to pass around the DocumentWriter.Doc as a 'Document' to a number of other places in the code. Doc.GoodThings would only be called from within an instance of either 'GoodDocument' or 'GoodDocumentWriter'.
public mustinherit class DocumentWriter
public property Doc as Document
public sub new()...
end class
public class GoodDocumentWriter
inherits DocumentWriter
public sub new
mybase.Doc = new GoodDocument
end sub
end class
public class BadDocumentWriter
inherits DocumentWriter
public sub new
mybase.Doc = new BadDocument
end sub
end class
Question:
Is there a design pattern that allows for derived classes to have members that don't exist at the base class level?
Do all properties have to live at the base class level?
Revised
I was trying to be brief with my initial question and I made the mistake of over simplifying the situation. In short, I did realize that it should be possible to have different properties on each of the derived classes. (I typed that in a tongue-in-cheek manor and didn't mean to keep it in the final post).
I realize now that the problem that I was experiencing was really symptomatic of a larger issue which needed addressing.
It appears that I was encountering compiler complaints that could be corrected by further refactoring and looser coupling. While others answered the basic question that I posed, Ryan Gross' example really helped kick start some new ideas.
Thanks!
What you should do in this case is define the operations that can be performed on instances of Document in an interface. In your case maybe there is a WriteThings operation, so you would have:
public interface Writeable {
public sub WriteThings();
}
Then in your derived classes you would implement the method to utilize the internal data of the class. For example:
public mustinherit class Document implements Writeable
public property Contents as string
public sub new()...
public sub WriteThings();
end class
public class GoodDocument
inherits Document
public property GoodThings as string
public sub new()...
public sub WriteThings()
//Do something with GoodThings
end sub
end class
public class BadDocument
inherits Document
public property BadThings as string
public sub WriteThings()
//Do something with BadThings
end sub
public sub new()...
end class
Finally, client code that needs to call WriteThings accesses it through an interface:
public mustinherit class DocumentWriter
public property Doc as Writable
public sub new()...
public sub PerformWrite()
Doc.WriteThings();
end sub
end class
It is generally not a good idea to build several parallel class hierarchies. In this case, one DocumentWriter class should be able to write any class that implements Writeable by invoking its WriteThings method.
If all the properties live at the base class level, then I'm not sure what the point of a derived class would be. :) You'd be able to do everything with the base class.
So, yes. If something is applicable only to GoodDocument and not to Document, then it should be in GoodDocument.
To answer your question specifically:
Yes, you just create multiple layers in the inheritance hierarchy: You have a base class, and then many two “branches” (good and bad, to use your terminology). Any properties that are only relevant to either branch, you declare in the class that inherits from the base class. Those properties will only be visible to that class and any classes inheriting from it.
No, properties can be declared anywhere within your inheritance hierarchy.

How do I code these generic functions and classes inheritances correctly? (VB .NET)

I have a function which I need to call for three different types, with the underlying logic remaining the same for all the different types, so I figured it would be best to write this function using generics.
Here is the basic outline of the classes and functions involved:
'PO Base class'
Public MustInherit Class ProductionOrder
Public MustInherit Class Collection(Of T)
Inherits System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary(Of Long, T)
End Class
'....'
End Class
Public Class ProfileProductionOrder
Inherits ProductionOrder
Public Class Collection
Inherits ProductionOrder.Collection(Of ProfileProductionOrder)
End Class
'....'
End Class
Public Class UnitProductionOrder
Inherits ProductionOrder
Public Class Collection
Inherits ProductionOrder.Collection(Of UnitProductionOrder)
End Class
'....'
End Class
Public Class CrateProductionOrder
Inherits ProductionOrder
Public Class Collection
Inherits ProductionOrder.Collection(Of CrateProductionOrder)
End Class
'....'
End Class
'Generic function, intended to work on profile, unit, and crate production orders.'
'This method resides in the base class of the GUI.'
Protected Sub FillPOCells(Of T As ProductionOrder.Collection(Of ProductionOrder)) _
(ByVal dgv As DataGridView, ByVal ProductionOrders As T)
'...do some stuff'
End Sub
'This function resides in the Profile child GUI class.'
Protected Sub LoadDataGridViewPOs()
Dim dgv As DataGridView
Dim ProductionOrders As ProfileProductionOrder.Collection
'....'
'Fill PO Cells'
FillPOCells(Of ProfileProductionOrder.Collection)(dgv, ProductionOrders)
'....'
End Sub
The ProductionOrder base and child classes compile, as does the FillPOCells function. But when I call FillPOCells inside LoadDataGridViewPOs the compiler complains that "Type argument 'ProfileProductionOrder.Collection' does not inherit from or implement the constraint type 'ProductionOrder.Collection(Of ProductionOrder)'.
Also, here is some explanation about why things are set up this way. My predecessor set up the convention of putting the collection of an object as a subclass within it, so it's easy to refer to it as Obj.Collection. Next, the reason we need three different types of production orders is because they are treated differently and stored in different tables and such on the back end. Lastly, I realize I could implement this fairly easily without getting this particular generic function to work, but I'm looking at this as a learning experience to improve my understanding of generics and OO design.
So the question is, why am I getting that compiler error and how should I change my class and generics design to accomplish what I have in mind?
If you need any further explanation about what I'm trying to do or how I have things set up let me know. The main idea is to have a function that can take a collection who's elements belong to one of the ProductionOrder child classes, and run operations on these elements that only use the functionality held in their ProductionOrder base class (hence why either of the child types is okay to operate on in the function).
'PO Base class'
Public MustInherit Class ProductionOrder(Of T)
Public MustInherit Class Collection
Inherits System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary(Of Long, T)
End Class
'....'
End Class
Public Class ProfileProductionOrder
Inherits ProductionOrder(Of ProfileProductionOrder)
'....'
End Class
Public Class UnitProductionOrder
Inherits ProductionOrder(Of UnitProductionOrder)
'....'
End Class
Public Class CrateProductionOrder
Inherits ProductionOrder(Of CrateProductionOrder)
'....'
End Class
That is a lot simpler according to me.
But I higly doubt you need the CollectionClass.