Question

Is it possible to add a class as a solution item and use it as a linked item in all the projects in the solution?

Basically I was thinking of creating a class (which will inherit ConfigurationSection) and keeping it as the Solution Item. I wanted to add it as a linked item in all the projects in the solution, so that everyone can use it to access the configuration properties.
(Refer to this tutorial for more details)

Now the issue I am facing is that when I create a class in the solution item, it doesn’t have any namespace. And it shows up in intellisense, inside the projects but once I create an object of the solution item class, the object doesn’t show up in intellisense.

Any ideas why?

Answer 1

You would be better off putting your class into a library and then people can reference your library and use your class. If you use the linking methodology, you will run into problems when one project wants to reference another as you will have the same class in both projects in the same namepsace – it will not compile.

Update

I can see from your other questions that you want to share configuration settings through a config file. Sharing the config file by linking is fine, it is just a plain text file so does not have any compilation issues. However, I would advise against sharing the class file using this method as discussed above. Put your configuration class in a class library project which other people can reference as a project reference – they can then use your class. Add the actual config file (with the settings) using linking. In this way your settings file will get copied across projects nicely, and people can use your configuration settings class by referencing it.