Question

I have an interface based class that I want to have a few static classes as properties. However, I can’t seem to find a way to use a static class as an instance property on a class based on an interface.

public interface IHttpHelp
{
   ItemsManager {get;set;}
}

public static class ItemsManager
{
   //static methods
}

public class HttpHelper
{
   public ItemsManager { get { return ItemsManager;} 
}

The above code won’t work because of the “ItemsManager is used like a variable but it’s a type error.” Is there anyway to use a class this way?

For some insight into what I’m doing – I have a few static helper classes that access the httpruntime and current context. I currently use them directly, but wanted to move into a container class that will be used IoC. I could make them instance classes and forget about it, but I’m wondering f there’s a way to this.

Answer 1

You can’t use a static class like that, because by definition you can’t create an instance of it, so you can’t return it from a property. Make it a singleton instead:

public class ItemsManager
{
    #region Singleton implementation

    // Make constructor private to avoid instantiation from the outside
    private ItemsManager()
    {
    }

    // Create unique instance
    private static readonly ItemsManager _instance = new ItemsManager();

    // Expose unique instance
    public static ItemsManager Instance
    {
        get { return _instance; }
    }

    #endregion

    // instance methods
    // ...
}

public class HttpHelper
{
    public ItemsManager ItemsManager { get { return ItemsManager.Instance; } }
}