Rewriting app the OOP way - some questions

[SammyWaslow]

I picked up programming after a five years absence and just made my first app with VS2005. Though I did use as much as from the .dot framework as possibly could, the code is more classical VB in that I have a module and lots of functions and Subs.

Now I'm rewriting the app, the OOP way. So I'm struggling with classes and such

My app basicly scans any folders the user selected for files of certain types.
If it is of the type I want, I want to 'Collect' it.

I made a class for the type i want, containing some properties and methods.

The one thing I'm not certain of is when I want to collect a file (ie add it),
should I add it to a collection of some sort within the class OR should I add an instance of the class for that file to an collection outside the class, ie een collection of objects?


Here's the code for the class (not finished yet):

Public Class MyMovie
    Private strMovie As String
    Private SubExtensions() As String = {".srt", ".sub"}
    Private arrBadWords() As String = {}
 
    Public Sub New(ByVal FullMovieName As String)
        strMovie = FullMovieName
        arrBadWords = BadWords()
    End Sub
 
    Public ReadOnly Property Name() As String
        Get
            Return My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFileInfo(strMovie).Name.ToString
        End Get
    End Property
 
    Public ReadOnly Property Folder() As String
        Get
            Return My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFileInfo(strMovie).Directory.FullName
        End Get
    End Property
 
    Public Function IsMovie() As Boolean
        'TO DO
    End Function
 
    Public Function HasSubs() As Boolean
        Dim strExt As String
        Dim strMovieExt As String = strMovie.Trim.Substring((strMovie.Trim.Length) - 4, 4)
        Dim strSub As String = strMovie.Trim.Substring(0, (strMovie.Trim.Length) - 4) 'strip extension
 
        'is there a file with the same name and a sub extension ?
        For Each strExt In SubExtensions
            If System.IO.File.Exists(strSub & strExt) Then
                Return True
                Exit Function
            End If
        Next
        Return False
    End Function
 
    Public Function CleanName() As String
        (...)
        Return strMovie
    End Function
 
    Private Function BadWords() As Array
        'Set the user defined "Bad Words" List
        'When a custom list is saved it is loaded into table "BadWords" during startup (LoadSettings())
        'If the list is empty populate with hardcoded list
        Dim tbl As DataTable = frmMain.dsProgramSettings.Tables.Item("BadWords")
        Dim row As DataRow
        Dim item As String
        Dim i As Short
        Dim arrList() As String = {"divx", "xvid", "dvdrip", "dvdscr", "ws", "done", "dvd", "rip"}
 
        If tbl.Rows.Count > 0 Then 'repopulate array list
            ReDim arrList(tbl.Rows.Count - 1)
            For i = 0 To UBound(arrList)
                arrList(i) = tbl.Rows(i).Item("Word").ToString
            Next
        Else 'Populate dataset table
            For Each item In arrList ' fill datatable 
                row = tbl.NewRow
                row("Word") = item.ToString.ToLower
                tbl.Rows.Add(row)
            Next
        End If
 
        Return arrList
 
    End Function
 
End Class

[jmcilhinney]

A class would not contain a collection of itself. If you're talking about movies then you would define a Movie class and a MovieCollection class. The MovieCollection class would inherit CollectionBase. With strongly-typed collections you basically reproduce the functionality of the ArrayList but restrict the objects it can store to a certain type.