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Below is an example of what I am trying to accomplish regarding instantiating partial classes in an effort to make use of multiple classes (and their methods) from a single .aspx page.

login.aspx:

<%@ Page Language="C#" Codefile="Web_Code/LogonService.cs" Inherits="Client.LogonService" %>
<!-- html here, also will be calling methods here via a form -->


Web_Code/SessionHandler.cs:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;

namespace Client {

    public partial class SessionHandler : Page {

        //Constructor method here

        public string setSessionUser(string username) {
            return "this works, this is just a test";
        }

    }   
}


Web_Code/LoginService.cs:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;

namespace Client {

    public partial class LoginService : Page {

        public void checkCredentials(object sender, EventArgs e) {

            //Check credentials here

            //If credentials are good, add the username to session

            /* PROBLEM HERE: VS CAN'T FIND TYPE NOR INSTANTIATE*/
            SessionHandler ses = new SessionHandler();
            ses.setSessionUser(username.Value);  

        }
    }
}

The problem is commented in Web_Code/LogonService.cs - it cannot instantiate the SessionHandler. - Why is that?

I'm switching from PHP to C# and in the PHP world I would have simply put "require("Web_Code/SessionHandler.php");" and called it a day, but the C# way seems to be a bit more involving.

I appreciate any input!

Matthew2468
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  • I am missing something. A question. What are you asking for here? – Oded Dec 23 '12 at 19:40
  • Hi there, I edited the OP to reference where the question is in my code. If you look at Web_Code/LogonService.cs where I'm trying to instantiate a SessionHandler, it will not and my question is how to fix that. Thanks. – Matthew2468 Dec 23 '12 at 19:45

1 Answers1

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You're trying to use .NET in a PHP way and eventually that's going to cause you problems. In ASP.NET you don't (and probably shouldn't) inherit every class from the Page class. That's typically only used for the codebehind for the particular web page that you're implementing. In WebForms, you'd also use Controls, like Label, Repeater, etc. rather than call page methods. Additionally, you already have access to the Session object and User object in your page and don't typically need to add your own session handling.

Given that you're just starting out, you might want to look at ASP.NET MVC. It's a much better paradigm for programming to the web.

tvanfosson
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  • Thank you for your answer. Would you recommend that I simply use one partial class per page? So if I had a "user-dashboard.aspx" page, the Codefile would be a partial class called something like "UserActions" which would handle everything on that dashboard page and if I had a logout button on the dashboard page, I could have it as a link to "logoff.aspx" which would have the Codefile as a partial class called "SessionHandler" to destroy the session? Is that a better way of thinking about it? – Matthew2468 Dec 23 '12 at 19:53
  • Yes and no, typically you have a partial class backing each page. That class contains the "codebehind" for the page - typically handling any business logic, data access, etc. Any code in your ASPX file is typically only used for rendering the HTML. Thus your `logoff.aspx` would have a partial `logoff` class that inherits from `Page`. In your `Page_Load` method, you would then use the `Session` property and, likely, the `FormsAuthentication` static class to actually logout and abandon the session. – tvanfosson Dec 23 '12 at 20:12
  • @Matthew2468 - and seriously, skip WebForms and use MVC instead. MVC is really the future of ASP.NET and you won't have to unlearn any bad habits you pick up in WebForms if you just start with MVC. – tvanfosson Dec 23 '12 at 20:15
  • Thank you for all of the information, I now have a better idea as to how to structure my projects. Also, I will look into MVC. Thank you for the advice. – Matthew2468 Dec 23 '12 at 20:57