asked on

Public forced to Protected ... How to stop?

I have a C# webform in Visual Studio 2003 with the following ...

protected System.Web.UI.WebControls.HyperLink HyperLink1;
protected System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label lblInfo;
protected System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label lblName;

I manually change it to ...

public System.Web.UI.WebControls.HyperLink HyperLink1;
public System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label lblInfo;
public System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label lblName;

works fine for awhile ... then KAPUT! VS IDE forces it back to ...

protected System.Web.UI.WebControls.HyperLink HyperLink1;
protected System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label lblInfo;
protected System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label lblName;

WTF?
How to stop VS IDE from changing PUBLIC back to PROTECTED?

WinterMuteUK

You can't stop the IDE from doing that (that I'm aware of).

The only solution would be to maybe encapsulate your controls as properties if you really want them to be public...

Wint.

Carl Tawn

Can't remember if this is the same for 2003 or not but highlight the control in the designer and open its properties window and see if there is a property called "Modifier".

gbzhhu

This happened to a colleague of mine before. After a good discussion we agreed that it was bad practice to put public fields/controls in general and that VS actions was actually justified. Can you think of a time when you MUST have a public field/control if it is yes then perhaps your objects are not designed correctly. Don't take this as a criticism please. It is my experience but then I am not that experienced

volking

ASKER

@carl_tawn - no "modifier" just "EnableViewState" and "Visible"

WinterMuteUK

I agree with gbzhhu, public modifiers on labels etc should be avoided if possible, the advantage of using properties is that you can provide just a getter which is at least a little bit safer than a full blown public field.

Wint.

volking

ASKER

Maybe I'm doing it ALL WRONG ...

I change declares to public so that, from the form hosting the control, I can set values within the control. Like this ...

The control is: MyMenu.ascx
The control contains a label: lblInfo

The control has been dropped onto: MyForm.aspx

In MyForm.aspx codebehind I can simply say: this.MyMenu1.MyLabel.Text = "Whatever";

Works fine if lblInfo has been declared public ...

Am I doing it wrong? How should I set control values from the host form?

SOLUTION

gbzhhu

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WinterMuteUK

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volking

ASKER

Excellent!

I changed this ....

public System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label lblSchoolName;
public System.Web.UI.WebControls.HyperLink HyperLink1;

back to this ....

protected System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label lblSchoolName;
protected System.Web.UI.WebControls.HyperLink HyperLink1;

and added this ...

public System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label LblSchoolName { get { return lblSchoolName; } }
public System.Web.UI.WebControls.HyperLink hyperLink1 { get { return HyperLink1; }

Works GREAT! Thanks all!