Global Db connection

[Genie]

I want to add a global Database connection object to my project. I have created the class and all is working. I have done the following in a form

namespace Forms
{
public class frmLogin : System.Windows.Forms.Form
{
//'DataAccess object
public clsDataAccess gDB = new clsDataAccess();

....

BUT
This teh objects is only accessible from that form. I have to do this on each form that I open in order to access the db.

Is there a a way to create a global object of type clsDataAccess so that I can access the same object from any form or class.

Alternatively, if I just create one object, how can I pass that object to another form??

Any help appreciated.

[CornedBee]

Let any class (for good design it should not be one of the form classes) contain it as a public static element.

[Genie]

Thats Fantastic CornedBee.

It worked!

Cheers.

[Venkrishna]

Genie,

Looks like I am almost near to what you have achieved regarding this problem. Can you please post the code into the thread you have raised in vbforums?

If you dont mind can you post the code for the class you have created for global connection and how you have instanciated the connection in the first form using this object.

[Genie]

I don't have that code anymore (been more than 2 years since that post!), but all you need to do is create any class and declare the object as a public static. Then you can access it from anywhere, without even having to instantiate that particular class.

[Venkrishna]

Genie,

I have written this code.

using System;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Data.SqlClient;

public class clsConn
	{

		public static SqlConnection ConnAA;

		public clsConn()
		{
			//
			// TODO: Add constructor logic here
			//

			ConnAA = new SqlConnection();
			ConnAA.ConnectionString = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["WlConnString"];
			ConnAA.Open();
		}

	}

Will this be enough to access the connection object
as clsConn.ConnAA? or do I have to written additional lines of code?

Please advise.

[CornedBee]

You should initialize ConnAA to null in its definition, and in the constructor check if it is null and only create the connection object in that case.

[Venkrishna]

Cornedbee,

From what you have told I have altered the code as below.

using System;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Data.SqlClient;

public class clsConn
	{

		public static SqlConnection ConnAA = null;

		public clsConn()
		{

		if (ConnAA == null)
			{
				ConnAA = new SqlConnection();
				ConnAA.ConnectionString  = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["WlConnString"];
				ConnAA.Open();
			}
		}
	}

Any more changes required? Please advise.

[CornedBee]

Looks good. In a multi-threaded app, it could cause problems, but that's pretty unlikely.

[Venkrishna]

CornedBee,

Correct me if I am wrong. Do I have to go for a singleton approach to avoid such a problem?

[CornedBee]

This is, in a way, a singleton approach. You're using the connection as a singleton.