VS 2017 / ASP.net - Global functions not being recognized - asp.net

Question

I made the jump from VS 2010 (VB) all the way to VS 2017, and that may have been a mistake. I've already been slowed down with bugs, which I have reported. My latest concern is about accessing a global functions class that I have never had a problem with in VS 2010. I have reported it and it is in triage, but I wanted to make sure that something hasn't changed in the versions since 2010, hoping someone here can tell me.
Essentially what happens is that the global class, no matter how it is configured, is not recognized by any other class. Including a reference in a form class causes the IDE to tag it as an error. For example, the code in the GlobalFunctions.vb document:
Public Class GlobalFunctions
Public Function DecodeBase64(strEncoded As String) As String
Dim byt As Byte() = Convert.FromBase64String(strEncoded)
Return (System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString(byt))
End Function
Public Function EncodeBase64(strUnencoded As String) As String
Dim byt As Byte() = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(strUnencoded)
Return (Convert.ToBase64String(byt))
End Function
End Class
and the calling methods from a form page:
If elemSetting.Attributes("name").Value = "LoginName" Then
Session("MailLoginName") = globalfunctions.DecodeBase64(elemSetting.Attributes("value").Value)
End If
If elemSetting.Attributes("name").Value = "LoginPass" Then
Session("MailLoginPass") = globalfunctions.DecodeBase64(elemSetting.Attributes("value").Value)
End If
Here the errors are being highlighted in the IDE:
And the error messages in the error list:
Understand, too, that I have tried as many variations of declarations as I can think of, such as "Public Shared Function," making the calling sub Shared, defining the global functions document as a Class or a Module, etc. Nothing works.
I've also tried placing the GlobalFunctions.vb class in the project's root directory and in a directory named App_Code, as was suggested in some blog posts around the net.
And since I have had no trouble like this with VS 2010, I assume it's a bug in 2017, which, as I said, I have reported. But I wanted to check with better minds than my own to see if I have overlooked something that may have changed somewhere between 2010 and 2017.
Can someone tell me if I am doing something wrong? Or maybe reaffirm for me that this is, indeed, a bug?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Try to delete and recreate your GlobalFunction.vb as maybe by renaming it in the past it didn't correctly correct everywhere in the project.
I think this is normal. You are using a Class and not a Module so you would need to declare a new instance either call like this:
Dim Globaler As New GlobalFunctions
If elemSetting.Attributes("name").Value = "LoginName" Then
Session("MailLoginName") = Globaler.DecodeBase64(elemSetting.Attributes("value").Value)
End If
If elemSetting.Attributes("name").Value = "LoginPass" Then
Session("MailLoginPass") = Globaler.DecodeBase64(elemSetting.Attributes("value").Value)
End If
Or use a Module and you wont need to declare a new instance.
Also if it still can't be accessed you should check the fact that maybe you just included the file to the solution without including it to the project
To Add new class:
Solution Explorer
Right Click your Project Name (above My Project)
Add
Class