The Power of Programming With Attributes

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Nothing can compare to the Real Power of programming with attributes. Why, just one pair of square brackets and woosh – my object can be serialize to XML. Woosh – my object can persist to a database table. Woosh – there goes my object over the wire in a digitally signed SOAP payload. One day I expect to see a new item template in Visual Studio – the "Add New All Powerful Attributed Class" template: *

[Table]    

[DataObject]

[DataContract]    

[Serializable]

[TwoKitchenSinks]       

[CLSCompliant(true)]        

[DefaultProperty("Name")]

[DefaultBindingProperty("Name")]

[DebuggerStepThroughAttribute]

[GuidAttribute("F0DD2CAA-2132-11DD-AC50-FE9355D89593")]

public class Person

{

    [Column]        

    [DataMember]        

    [XmlAttribute]

    [Browsable(true)]

    [ReadOnly(false)]

    [Category("Advanced")]

    [Description("The person's name")]        

    public string Name { get; set; }

    // TODO: YOUR INSIGNIFIGANT BIZ LOGIC GOES HERE...

}

Which begs the question – could there ever be a way to separate attributes from the class definition?**

* Put down the flamethrower and step away - I'm kidding.

**This part was a serious question.

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