Question

So this particular topic has been beaten to death; but apparently my iteration is either not the method of choice or isn’t practical for implementation.

The goal is to create a Windows Form and a Web Form. Those two forms; set a property in a separate class. Then other classes reference the container; that way as the interface is changed the functionality will change without a lot of recoding.

Windows Form —> Container <— Web Form
Container –> Referenced by these: Class 1, Class 2, Class 3

I approached it like this:
Form:

private Some.Reference.ToClass.Container _container;
public void Method(Some.Reference.ToClass.Container Container)
{
          _container = Container;
}

private void button_click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
          _container.Name = textbox.Text (or some other component)
}

Class: “Container”

public Name { get; set; }

Class or Form to Reference:

Class WhateverName
{
       private string REFERENCE;

       private Some.Reference.ToClass.Container _container;
       public void Method(Some.Reference.ToClass.Container Container)
       {
                _container = Container;
       }

       public void NewMethod()
       {
              REFERENCE = _container.Name;
       }
}

It continually doesn’t set; it states it’s a null object. What am I missing? Any help would be appreciated. Or even a nice tutorial for me to compare to learn; or find why it doesn’t work would be fine as well.

Answer 1

Based on the details provided; including the issue with the null value. I set a Constructor to automatically initialize based upon the change. Then just added some null reference check.

An example of this resolution:

public class One
{

    // declared:
    private.some.Reference.ToSomeClass _container;

    One(ToSomeClass container)
    {
          _container = container;
    }

    private void button_click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
          if(_container != null)
          {
               _container.Name = textbox.Text (or some other component)
          }
    }
}

Then in the other class; it references the Property; for it to be set. So to avoid it failing cause a value hasn’t been assigned yet or an instance hasn’t been created just added a null reference verification.