VB.NET: Use Class Name as Expression - asp.net

Question

I'm not sure if this is possible but I would like to associate a class name reference to a shared member method / property / variable. Consider:
Public Class UserParameters
Public Shared Reference As Object
Public Shared Function GetReference() As Object
Return Reference
End Function
End Class
In another part of the program I would like to simply call UserParameters and have it return Reference either by aliasing GetReference or the variable directly.
I am trying to emulate the Application, Request, or Session variable:
Session(0) = Session.Item(0)
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You can't return an instance member from a static method directly (the static method can't access instance members because it isn't instantiated with the rest of the class, only one copy of a static method exists).
If you need to setup a class in such a way that you can return an instance from a static method you would need to do something similar to the following:
Public Class SampleClass
Private Sub New()
'Do something here
End Sub
Public Shared Function GetSample() As SampleClass
Dim SampleClass As SampleClass
SampleClass = New SampleClass
SampleClass.Sample = "Test"
Return SampleClass
End Function
Private _SampleString As String
Public Property Sample As String
Get
Return _SampleString
End Get
Private Set(ByVal value As String)
_SampleString = value
End Set
End Property
End Class
Public Class SampleClass2
Public Sub New()
'Here you can access the sample class in the manner you expect
Dim Sample As SampleClass = SampleClass.GetSample
'This would output "Test"
Debug.Fail(Sample.Sample)
End Sub
End Class
This method is used in various places in the CLR. Such as the System.Net.WebRequest class. where it is instantiated in this manner in usage:
' Create a request for the URL.
Dim request As WebRequest = WebRequest.Create("http://www.contoso.com/default.html")