Namespaces organize the objects defined in an assembly. Assemblies can contain multiple namespaces, which can in turn contain other namespaces. Namespaces prevent ambiguity and simplify references when using large groups of objects such as class libraries.
The general namespace for ComponentOne Web products is C1.Web. The namespace for the C1WebCommand2 is C1.Web.Command. The following code fragment shows how to declare a C1WebMenu (which is one of the core WebMenus and WebBars for ASP.NET classes) using the fully qualified name for this class:
Dim WebMenu As C1.Web.Command.C1WebMenu
• C#
C1.Web.Command.C1WebMenu WebMenu;
Namespaces address a problem sometimes known as namespace pollution, in which the developer of a class library is hampered by the use of similar names in another library. These conflicts with existing components are sometimes called name collisions.
For example, if you create a new class named C1WebMenu, you can use it inside your project without qualification. However, the C1.Web.Command.2.dll assembly also implements a class called C1WebMenu. So, if you want to use both C1WebMenu classes in the same project, you must use a fully qualified reference to make the reference unique. If the reference is not unique, Visual Studio .NET produces an error stating that the name is ambiguous. The following code snippet demonstrates how to declare these objects:
'Define a new object of your C1WebMenu class type
Dim myWebMenu as C1WebMenu
'Define a new C1.Web.Command.C1WebMenu object.
Dim c1WebMenu as C1.Web.Command.C1WebMenu
• C#
//Define a new object of your C1WebMenu class type.
myWebMenu as C1WebMenu;
//Define a new C1.Web.Command.C1WebMenu object.
c1WebMenu as C1.Web.Command.C1WebMenu;
Fully qualified names are object references that are prefixed with the name of the namespace where the object is defined. You can use objects defined in other projects if you create a reference to the class (by choosing Add Reference from the Project menu) and then use the fully qualified name for the object in your code.
Fully qualified names prevent naming conflicts because the compiler can always determine which object is being used. However, the names themselves can get long and cumbersome. To get around this, you can use the Imports statement (using in C#) to define an alias — an abbreviated name you can use in place of a fully qualified name. For example, the following code snippet creates aliases for two fully qualified names, and uses these aliases to define two objects:
Imports C1WebMenu = C1.Web.Command.C1WebMenu
Imports MyWebMenu = MyProject.Objects.C1WebMenu
Dim wm1 As C1WebMenu
Dim wm2 As MyWebMenu
• C#
using C1WebMenu = C1.Web.Command.C1WebMenu;
using MyWebMenu = MyProject.Objects.C1WebMenu;
C1WebMenu wm1;
MyWebMenu wm2;
If you use the Imports statement without an alias, you can use all the names in that namespace without qualification provided they are unique to the project.
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