Question

I am currently developing a client library for connecting to Newegg using the documentation provided by Newegg and have a question on class design.

In working with various API’s ( namely NetSuite and Amazon’s MWS ) I come across classes that have are used like this:

 recToFulfill.packageList = new ItemFulfillmentPackageList();
 recToFulfill.packageList.package = new ItemFulfillmentPackage[ifitemlist.item.Length];
 recToFulfill.packageList.package[i] = new ItemFulfillmentPackage();
 recToFulfill.packageList.package[i].packageWeightSpecified = true;
 recToFulfill.packageList.package[i].packageTrackingNumber = "trackingNumber";

The question I have is: How do I properly design the nested objects like above? I have never had to worry about this previously, so I am unsure on where to look, or start.

The bit I need to figure out looks like this ( taken from the API documentation provided):

<UpdateOrderStatusInfo>
    <IsSuccess></IsSuccess>
    <Result>
        <OrderNumber></OrderNumber>
        <SellerID></SellerID>
        <OrderStatus></OrderStatus>
    </Result>
</UpdateOrderStatusInfo>

All fields are type string, except order number which is an integer.

I have this currently:

 public class UpdateOrderStatusInfo
{
    public string IsSuccess { get; set; }
    public int OrderNumber { get; set; }
    public string SellerID { get; set; }
    public string OrderStatus { get; set; }
}

But the returned XML Response has Results as a parent node which to me seems like it should be represented within the class itself. Would I just do this?

public UpdateOrderStatusInfo results {get; set;}

If so, where do the child nodes go?

What I need is to be able to say is something like:

UpdateOrderStatusInfo updateInfo = new UpdateOrderStatusInfo();
if(updateInfo.IsSuccess.Equals("true")
{
     Console.WriteLine(updateInfo.Results.OrderStatus);
}    

Any help, or advice on where to get this information is appreciated.

Answer 1

You need to define the Result as a separate class, called whatever you want, then add a Result property as that type. The Result class can be defined at the namespace level, or, if you are unlikely to use it anywhere else on its own, you can nest the class definition inside the UpdateOrderStatusInfo class:

public class UpdateOrderStatusInfo
{
    public class UpdateOrderResult
    {
        public int OrderNumber { get; set; }
        public string SellerID { get; set; }
        public string OrderStatus { get; set; }
    }

    public UpdateOrderStatusInfo()
    {
        Result = new UpdateOrderResult();
    }

    public string IsSuccess { get; set; }
    public UpdateOrderResult Result { get; set; }
}