Why can't I make a public partial class "extension" on a service generated class?

Elements Oxygene
1

I have a WCF service I’m using from Silverlight code. I wanted to “extend” the public partial class that was generated, but the compiler doesn’t allow me to.

The slSvcUtil service generated code has essentially this:


namespace;

interface

uses
    System.Runtime.Serialization;

...

[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute]
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute('System.Runtime.Serialization', '4.0.0.0')]
[System.Runtime.Serialization.DataContractAttribute(Name := 'Settings', &Namespace := 'http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/Guardian.Settings.DataContracts')]
Guardian.Settings.DataContracts.Settings = public partial class(System.Object)
private 
    var TerminologyField: System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary;
    method get_Terminology: System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary;
    method set_Terminology(value: System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary);
public
    [System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMemberAttribute]
    property Terminology: System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary read get_Terminology write set_Terminology;
end;
...

This code is part of a separate project assembly with no other code and no other project references.

Then I added this class file:

namespace Guardian.Settings.DataContracts;

interface

   type
      Settings = public partial class( System.Object )
         public
            property AtRiskLabel             : String read GetAtRiskLabel write fAtRiskLabel; notify;
         private
            fAtRiskLabel: String;
            method GetAtRiskLabel: String;
         end;

implementation

   method Settings.GetAtRiskLabel: String;
      begin
      if fAtRiskLabel = nil then begin
         fAtRiskLabel := Terminology[ 'AtRisk' ];
         end;

      result := fAtRiskLabel;
      end;

end.

And I get a compiler error that says it doesn’t know the identifier Terminology.

If I add this file to the project:

namespace Guardian.Settings.DataContracts;

interface

implementation

end.

Then it compiles fine.

I have had this problem before and forgot my past solution of adding that bogus namespace file. I don’t think I posted about this before, but thought I should post it now.

So is this a bug, or should I have done something different to get the partial class to compile properly?

2

I’m not sure if i fully understand what you are trying to do, but: partial classes need to have all parts defined in the same assembly.

3

Yeah, I had already bumped into the same assembly requirement. But both of the files I listed above are in the same project. And they are the only files in the project.

When I said a “separate assembly”, I meant that both files were in the same, separate assembly from anything else in the solution.

And I added the “bogus” namespace file to get it to compile, so there are now 3 files in the project. The two for the partial classes and the one to help resolve the namespace from the service generated file.

I think the problem stems from the fact that the namespace in the generated file is just “namespace;”. No named namespace. So I think the file that wants to reference the classes in there doesn’t know about the namespace “Guardian.Settings.DataContracts” until I add in the extra file (even when that file has nothing defined in it.

4

This does sound like a bug then, possibly caused by the different namespace syntaxes (per-unit vs on-the-class-decl). can you send us the exact project that shows this?

5

Here is the assembly. It includes the Bogus file that resolves the namespace issue. If that file is removed from the project, then the compiler fails.

6

bugs://64483: Problem with partial class if one part has the namespace locally on the class decl, thanx

7

@mtiede: can you try this with the ‘alpha’ builds? I cannot reproduce this issue

8

My version is getting old already and I don’t want to goof up what I have as I’m in the middle of some serious modifications to a major project.

When I get done with that, hopefully I can update my version and I can check then. If you can’t reproduce it, that sounds like the problem has been fixed.

Thanks.