Modular approach to .net development for large solution?

[Tim]

Dear All,

I have been working with VB.NET for the last 5 months or so as a solo
developer for a small business. I have already started developing the
application but have hit a snag with the referencing of one project
within another.

I would like to develop the solution using a modular approach such
that the solution will be made up of several smaller projects being
referenced by a main application project. Some of these smaller
projects may well have to work independently from the main application
so these have been set-up as New Windows Applications.

My problem is that when I try to call a form held within the smaller
project from within the main application project I will require a
reference to the sub-project. However, to create a reference to this
project from within my main project I need to connect to a .dll or a
COM object. Now, I'm not really clear whether or not I should have
created this sub-project as a com object as I want it to be able to
run independently from the main application project as well. I just
can't seem to find a .dll within the sub-project folder, just an
Executable?

So how should I be structuring my solution so that I reference the
smaller projects from within the main project? And Allow some of the
smaller projects to run independently? And do I create the other
smaller projects that will not run independently but that provide
specific functionality as COM objects?

Any help much appreciated!!

Kind Regards,

Tim

[Michael Giagnocavo [MVP]]

You should add a Project Reference from the main project to the sub
projects. If you are using .NET, then no need to use COM (except for
interop with legacy code).

-mike
MVP

"Tim" <tp********@plls.co.uk> wrote in message
news:10**************************@posting.google.c om...

Dear All,

I have been working with VB.NET for the last 5 months or so as a solo
developer for a small business. I have already started developing the
application but have hit a snag with the referencing of one project
within another.

I would like to develop the solution using a modular approach such
that the solution will be made up of several smaller projects being
referenced by a main application project. Some of these smaller
projects may well have to work independently from the main application
so these have been set-up as New Windows Applications.

My problem is that when I try to call a form held within the smaller
project from within the main application project I will require a
reference to the sub-project. However, to create a reference to this
project from within my main project I need to connect to a .dll or a
COM object. Now, I'm not really clear whether or not I should have
created this sub-project as a com object as I want it to be able to
run independently from the main application project as well. I just
can't seem to find a .dll within the sub-project folder, just an
Executable?

So how should I be structuring my solution so that I reference the
smaller projects from within the main project? And Allow some of the
smaller projects to run independently? And do I create the other
smaller projects that will not run independently but that provide
specific functionality as COM objects?

Any help much appreciated!!

Kind Regards,

Tim

[Tim]

Thanks for you post Mike,

I have tried to create a project reference, however I am retrurned
this error message when I tryed to reference my sub-project from
within my main project.

"A Reference to 'CONTACTS' could not be added. An assembly must have a
'.dll' extension in order to be refenced."

Is there a problem with the way I have setup my sub-project to build?

Regards,

Tim

[Tim Anderson]

"Tim" <tp********@plls.co.uk> wrote in message
news:10**************************@posting.google.c om...

Dear All,

I have been working with VB.NET for the last 5 months or so as a solo
developer for a small business. I have already started developing the
application but have hit a snag with the referencing of one project
within another.

You might like to consider splitting off the user interface code from the
non-visual code, and putting the non-visual stuff into a library project
(dll). Then you could use the shared library from all the Winform projects.

Tim
Where is Borland going?
http://www.itwriting.com/borlandtop.php

[Michael Giagnocavo [MVP]]

Yes, make sure your CONTACTS project is a Class Library, not an Exe. If you
need Contacts to be a separate program in and of itself, then you'll need to
move its core code into a DLL project, which both Contacts (EXE) and your
main EXE can reference.

-mike
MVP

"Tim" <tp********@plls.co.uk> wrote in message
news:10**************************@posting.google.c om...

Thanks for you post Mike,

I have tried to create a project reference, however I am retrurned
this error message when I tryed to reference my sub-project from
within my main project.

"A Reference to 'CONTACTS' could not be added. An assembly must have a
'.dll' extension in order to be refenced."

Is there a problem with the way I have setup my sub-project to build?

Regards,

Tim

[Mark]

tp********@plls.co.uk (Tim) wrote in news:100ccfa6.0312020120.34bcce22
@posting.google.com:

"A Reference to 'CONTACTS' could not be added. An assembly must have a
'.dll' extension in order to be refenced."

VS.NET requires that references (even to projects) be only to class
libraries, not .exe (windows forms or console). This is a limitation of
VS.NET, and not a limitation of VB.NET, C#, the CLR, the framework or
anything else. If you build from the command line, you can do your
references any way you like.

example:
test.cs contains:

public class someclass
{
public static void Main()
{
System.Console.WriteLine("hello, world");
}
}
user.cs contains:

class otherclass
{
static void Main()
{
System.Console.WriteLine("running someclass.Main()");
System.Console.Write(" ");
someclass.Main();
System.Console.WriteLine("done.");
}
}
build test.exe with:
csc /t:exe test.cs
build user.exe with:
csc /t:exe /r:test.exe user.cs

Run user.exe, and see that it uses the class in test.exe

Mark