Why is my class nothing? - asp.net

Question

I have a .NET 2010 project. In it, I create a basic user class. Instantiate it and successfully fill it with data. The entire time it is doing this, if I hover over the class, it says it is nothing, even as it fills its properties. Later on, it hoses me in the UI, even though the property has a value it says the class is nothing.
I DO instatiate the class...
Dim oExtendedUser As New ExtendedUser
and here is the classs definition...
Public Class ExtendedUser
Inherits System.Web.Security.MembershipUser
Public Sub New()
_Role = New Role
End Sub
Public Property ExtendedUserID As Int32
Public Property FirstName As String
Public Property LastName As String
Public Property Phone As String
Public Property UserID As Guid
Public Property Role As Role
Public Property UserName() As String
Public Property Password() As String
Public Property SecurityQuestion() As String
Public Property SecurityAnswer() As String
End Class
I changed the class. I added MyBase.New() but the problem persists. On the UI, here is the code that executes when the button is clicked. Director has, as a proprety, ExtendedUSer
Dim oCase As New BE.Case
Dim oDirector As New BE.Director
oDirector = SessionManager.Director 'the values are here
oCase.Investigator.ExtendedUserID = oDirector.ExtendedUser.ExtendedUserID
And here is the Director...
Public Class Director
Public Sub New()
_ExtendedUser = New ExtendedUser
End Sub
Public Property ID As Int32
Public Property ExtendedUser As ExtendedUser
End Class

Answer 1

You got tricked by the ToString Override.
Your object exists but it overrides the ToString Method : MembershipUser.ToString
To validate this behavior, try it with a simple class :
VB.NET
Public Class Test
Public Property TestString As String
Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
Return Me.TestString
End Function
End Class
C#
public class Test
{
public string TestString { get; set; }
public override string ToString()
{
return this.TestString;
}
}
With this code, the Watch will show you an instanciated Test to Nothing, because ToString value will be Nothing. The object exist, but Visual Studio is using the ToString Method to populate the value field, and at this point it is Nothing.
VB.NET
Public Class Test
Public Property TestString As String = ""
Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
Return Me.TestString
End Function
End Class
C#
public class Test
{
public Test()
{
this.TestString = "";
}
public string TestString { get; set; }
public override string ToString()
{
return this.TestString;
}
}
With this code you'll get an empty string.
To get back to your code, you cannot extend the MembershipUser so simply, you have to follow this guideline : How to: Implement a Custom Membership User. As many things won't work with your actual extension (For example, your username shadowing the base one).
See this question as well. There are easier ways to extend your user "entity" than inheritance.