I had a situation where I had a Payment UserControl that had say, 20 properties on it. I also had a Class file (App_Code) that I wanted to use to handle some of the business logic when the payment was complete. Say create tables in the database.
I could have A) Created a method on the class and sent in 20 arguments. B) Created 20 properties on that class and populate them all before I call the method. But that was waste of code to me, when I already had the information. I just wanted to do something with it.
So I thought, what if I just send in my UserControl into my class method by reference, then I can just use the properties directly to retrieve the value. So I tried… no luck. Class can’t see my UserControl class.
Problem/Broken Version:
My UserControl’s class is Application_Controls_Payment
Partial Class Application_Controls_Payment
Inherits System.Web.UI.UserControl
'...
End Class
In my class file I tried to use it as an argument on a function that the page would send me. However this fails on the compiler.
Public Shared Function CreateTransactionRecordInDB(ByRef PaymentUserControl As Application_Controls_Payment) As Integer
'This Errors, as Application_Controls_Payment class from the UserControl can not be seen from this level
End Function
Solution:
So I created an Interface for all the properties, and Implemented it on my UserControl. Then Sent the UserControl as the Interface and low and behold, it works great!
Step 1: Create Interface with all the properties.
Public Interface PaymentControl
Property CreditCardNumber() As String
Property CCVCode() As String
Property ExpirationMonth() As String
Property ExpirationYear() As String
Property TransactionAmount() As Double
Property TransactionAmountAdditionalInfo() As String
Property TransactionDescription() As String
Property InvoiceNumber() As String
Property BillingFirstName() As String
Property BillingLastName() As String
Property BillingEmail() As String
Property BillingCompany() As String
Property BillingAddress() As String
Property BillingState() As String
Property BillingCity() As String
Property BillingZipCode() As String
Property CustomerID() As String
Property CustomerIPAddress() As String
Property EmailCustomerReceipt() As Boolean
Property EmailReceiptHeader() As String
Property EmailReceiptFooter() As String
Property EmailOfMerchant() As String
Property TestMode() As Boolean
Property ValidationGroup() As String
End Interface
Step 2: Implement this Interface To your UserControl
Partial Class Application_Controls_Payment
Inherits System.Web.UI.UserControl
Implements CheckOut.PaymentControl
Public Property CreditCardNumber() As String Implements CheckOut.PaymentControl.CreditCardNumber
Get
Return txtCCNumber.Text
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As String)
txtCCNumber.Text = Value
End Set
End Property
Public Property CCVCode() As String Implements CheckOut.PaymentControl.CCVCode
Get
Return txtCCVCode.Text
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As String)
txtCCVCode.Text = Value
End Set
End Property
'... Rest of Properites
End Class
Step 3: Change your Method Constructor to want the Interface class vs trying to call the UserControl’s class.
Public Shared Function CreateTransactionRecordInDB(ByRef PaymentUserControl As PaymentControl) As Integer
'Now you can reference the properties from the usercontrol
Dim oPaymentTransactions As New PaymentTransaction
oPaymentTransactions.BillingAddress = PaymentUserControl.BillingAddress
oPaymentTransactions.CCVCode = PaymentUserControl.CCVCode
oPaymentTransactions.CCExpirationMonth = PaymentUserControl.ExpirationMonth
'Rest of code here
End Function
And there you go.