Question

I have a class module in my App_code folder.

Private _connection As MySqlConnection
Private _connStr As String

Public Function Connect(dbName As String) As Boolean
    Try
        _connStr = "Database=" & dbName & ";" & _
                "Data Source=192.16.0.1;" & _
                "User Id=user;Password=pass"
        _connection = New MySqlConnection(_connStr)
        _connection.Open()
        _connection.Close()
        Return True
    Catch ex As Exception
        _connection = Nothing
        Return False
    End Try
    Return False
End Function

I usually program in webform apps. Why can’t I access this function from my aspx code behind pages? I added the import statement for the class. If i make that function shared I cant have those private variables.

I call the function in my aspx lik so;

If Connect(dbName) then....

That gets me an error “non shared member requires an object reference”

Answer 1

You need to add the keyword “Shared” to the method signature, like so:

Private Shared _connection As MySqlConnection
Private Shared _connStr As String
Public Shared Function Connect(dbName As String) As Boolean

This is because otherwise you have instance class members, not static members. The compiler error message is quite self-explanatory.