Question

How can i make the following class as general as possible (for maximum reuse) without creating too many classes of the same type, albeit with one extra property.

I want to avoid writing 3 slightly different versions of the same class

1# Class with No SubContent

public class Content
    {
         public string PageName { get; set; }
    }

2# Class with Subcontent

public class Content
    {
         public string PageName { get; set; }

         public IList<Content> SubContent {get; set;}    //same as class

    }

3# Class with sub content of another type

public class Content
        {
             public string PageName { get; set; }

             public IList<DetailContent> SubContent {get; set;} //Note the different def

        }

Of course i can create a generic class, but i find this confusing for consumers. It is inferring that the class is of Type T, when in fact its the Property that requires the type

public class Content<T>
            {
                 public string PageName { get; set; }

                 public IList<T> SubContent {get; set;} //Note the different def

            }

Generic Properties are not supported. So are there any patterns or suggestion on how i can handle this problem?

Answer 1

What about

public class Content
{
    public string PageName { get; set; }
}

public class ContentWithSubContent<T> : Content
{
    public IList<T> SubContent { get; set; }
}

and if you want to be able to access SubContent not knowing the actual type, you could use

public class Content
{
    public string PageName { get; set; }
}

public interface IContentWithSubContent
{
    IEnumerable SubContent { get; }
}

public class ContentWithSubContent<T> : Content, IContentWithSubContent
{
    public IList<T> SubContent { get; set; }

    IEnumerable IContentWithSubContent SubContent 
    { 
        get { return this.SubContent; } 
    }
}

that way you can access the SubContent property bypassing generics if you need to, by using IContentsWithSubContent rather than Content.