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Creating Classes

2:52 with James Churchill

In this video, we'll introduce our first challenge—adding classes to our Media Library program.

Prerequisites

This practice session assumes that you've completed stage 1 of the C# Objects course. If you haven't done that yet, go check it out, then come back to this workshop.

Instructions

1st Challenge
  1. Add at least two classes to your program—one class for each type of item—or media type—that can be added to your media library.
    • Define each class using the class keyword within its own C# code file.
    • Use "Treehouse.MediaLibrary" for the namespace.
  2. Add at least two public fields to each media type class that you added in step #1.
    • Each field definition should include an access modifier, a data type, and a name.

Media Type Ideas

Here are some ideas for media types (and fields) that you could define classes for:

  • Album
    • Title
    • Artist
    • Release Date
    • Label
    • Format
    • Genre
  • Audio Book
    • Title
    • Author
    • Publisher
    • Publish Date
    • Length
    • Format
    • Genre
    • Performed By
  • Book
    • Title
    • Author
    • Publisher
    • Publish Date
    • Page Count
    • Format
    • Genre
  • eBook
    • Title
    • Author
    • Publisher
    • Publish Date
    • Page Count
    • Format
    • Genre
  • Movie
    • Title
    • Director
    • Release Date
    • Actors
    • Producers
    • Editor
    • Studio
    • Genre
    • Length
  • Video Game
    • Title
    • Published
    • Developers
    • Platform
    • Series
    • Genre

Help

If you get stuck on any of the following topics or simply need a refresher, click on a topic in list below to view the associated video in the C# Objects course.

[MUSIC] 0:00
Hi, everyone, this is James. 0:04
In this C# practice session you'll practice creating and 0:06
instantiating classes using C#. 0:10
It reinforces what you learned in stage one of the C# objects course. 0:12
If you find this practice session too challenging to complete, 0:17
you might need to review that course. 0:21
See the teachers notes for a link. 0:23
This practice session is the first in a series of sessions 0:25
where you'll build out a media library console application. 0:28
Step-by-step, you'll add features to the program. 0:31
Eventually, you'll be able to use C# to add, list, and 0:35
search for items like albums, books, and 0:40
movies, whatever you want to have catalogued in your media library. 0:43
We'll start the development of our program by creating a C# class for 0:47
each type of item, or media type, that can be added to your media library. 0:51
For example, for 0:56
my media library program I'm going to support albums, books, and movies. 0:57
You can use the same media types or you can come up with your own types. 1:02
Remember that objects have both attributes and behaviors. 1:07
In this session we'll think about the attributes that we want to track for 1:11
each of the media types, and add a field for 1:15
each attribute to the appropriate media type class in future practice sessions. 1:17
We'll add behaviors to our media types by extending our media type classes with 1:23
methods. 1:27
I've attached a workspace to this video. 1:28
Go ahead and open the workspace or download the project files 1:31
if you want to use an external editor or IDE like VisualStudio. 1:35
For your first challenge, you'll add at least two classes to the program, 1:40
one class for each type of item, or media type, that can be added to your library. 1:44
Define each class, using the 'class' keyword within its own C# code file. 1:49
For the namespace, use "Treehouse.MediaLibrary". 1:54
Once you've stubbed out the media type classes 1:59
then add at least two public fields to each media type class. 2:02
Remember, to add a field to a class you use an access modifier, 2:06
a data type, and a name. 2:10
There are lot's of different fields that you could define for each media type. 2:13
For my album, book, and movie media types, I'm going to add the following fields. 2:17
For the album media type, I'll add 'Title', and 'Artist' fields for 2:22
the book media type, I'll add 'Title', and 'Author' fields, and 2:26
for the movie media type, I'll add 'Title', and 'Director' fields. 2:31
If you need some inspiration for 2:36
fields that you could add, see the teachers notes for some additional ideas. 2:37
And that's it for the first challenge. 2:41
If you aren't able to fully complete this challenge, 2:43
don't worry, I'll show you my solution in the next video. 2:46
Good luck, and we'll see you in just a bit. 2:49

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