Visual Studio - manage multiple files that are part of one Class - classes, modules...

Question

My VB project is large enough that it requires several files. It was originally developed as a Console App and I created each file as a MODULE. All modules could use subroutines, data structures and constants from other MODULES and everything worked fine. I needed to add basic windowing to the app and this required that the app be converted from a Console App to a Windows Forms App. The main window is Form1 which is not a MODULE but a CLASS. The problem is that some MODULE based functions cannot access subroutines, data and constants that are defined within the CLASS Form1 unless they are incorporated into the CLASS file and this makes the CLASS file very large. If I add a new Class file to the project, it also cannot interoperate with Class Form1 in the same way that multi-MODULE code interoperates.

How does one spread CLASS code across several files and still allow it to interoperate as if it were in a single file? Alternatively, how does one create several CLASS files that operate the way multiple MODULE files operate.

I am sure that there are all kinds of best practices that I am violating but the goal to to get some prototype software working and interfaced to some lab equipment.

Thank you in advance

Answer 1

Use a partial class (Partial keyword on the class declaration). Each partial "bit" of the class will be merged at compile time. All partial bits must be in the same project.

Answer 2

Modules are default shared and do not require initialization with the New keyword. When you made your console app a windows app, it became a class...You could change it to the same behavior as a module simply by making it a Public shared Class and making all properties and methods inside shared as well.

so while you can access your methods and properties in your modules without initialization, you would need to use the NEW method to initialize your Class methods.

To access the Class from the module you would simply have to use:

SomeModulemethod
   dim x as new CLASS
   CLASS.SOMEMETHOD
someModuleMethod End

You could also use Partial Classing to split up your Classes, but it is much better to decide if you really need a separate class for what you want to do.