Visual RPG Language Reference  

BEGCLASS

Declares the name of a class, as well as a definition of the variables, properties, events and methods that comprise the class. 

BEGCLASS
Name (Class name)
Partial (*NO  | *YES)
Access(*PUBLIC | *INTERNAL)
Modifier (*EXTENSIBLE| *NOTEXTENSIBLE | *MUSTEXTEND)
Extends (Class name)
Implements (Interface name list)
Attributes (attribute 1, attribute 2, ...)

Parts

Name

Required. Contains the name of the class.

Partial

Optional.  Indicates if the class is partial, (that is, declared in parts); possibly in different source files.  All the parts of a partial class must use Partial(*YES).  *NO is the default.

Access

Optional.  Allows the contents of the class to be access either only internally by other class in the same assembly (exe or dll), or to the 'outside world'.  *Public is the default.

  • *PUBLIC – class is accessible to the 'outside' world, that is, it can be referenced by any other assembly. 

  • *INTERNAL - class is accessible only by other classes in the current assembly.

Modifier

Optional.  Modifier controls how properties and methods are overridden in derived classes.  *EXTENSIBLE is the default. 

  • *EXTENSIBLE (default) - specifies that other classes can be defined to extend this class.  The new class is called a derived class.   

  • *MUSTEXTENDED -  specifies that non-shared members of this class cannot be used on its own.  The class only provides a set of fields, properties, events and methods as the basis to derive new classes.   Instances of *MustExtende classes cannot be created. 

  • *NOTEXTENSIBLE - specifies that this class cannot be extended in a new derived class.  No further inheritance is allowed from this class.

Extends

Optional.  Identifies the name of the base class to extend, such as System.Windows.Forms.Form.  The new class inherits all the members of the base class.

Implements

Optional.  Indicates that this class implements the members of an interface.  An interface defines a set of properties, events and methods, but does not provide an implementation of them, just a definition.  You must implement every member of every interface you specify in this keyword.

Attributes

Optional.  Allows you to provide one or more attributes that apply to this class.  To specify more than one attribute, simply separate them with commas. 

Remarks

An ENDCLASS statement must be the last statement in the class.

For more information on classes, see topics within Understanding Classes.

For more information on attributes, see Custom Attributes.

Example

The following is an example of BEGCLASS showing attribute usage: 

Using System.ComponentModel
 Using System.Reflection 
 BEGCLASS Boxer Extends(System.Windows.Forms.TextBox)  +
 Attributes(DefaultProperty("myValue")          +
Description("With two custom attributes"))

  DclFld AnInt  Type( *Integer) Len(4) Attributes(DefaultValue(85))
   DclFld AStr   Type( *String)         Attributes(DefaultValue("Jupiter"))
   DclFld XColor Type(*Integer) Len(4) Access(*Public)       +

Attributes (Description("Radix showing color"),    +
 Category("Appearance"))
ENDCLASS

See Also

Custom Attributes
ENDCLASS
Understanding Classes