Professional Visual Studio® 2008

4.5. Object Test Bench

Implementing classes can be quite a tedious process that usually involves several iterations of the design, write, and execute cycles. This is particularly true when the classes are part of a large system that can take considerable time to initiate in order to test the class being created. Visual Studio 2008 has what is known as the object test bench, which can be used to instantiate entities and invoke methods without your having to load the entire application. The object test bench is itself another tool window that appears empty by default and acts as a sandbox in which you can create and work with objects.

4.5.1. Invoking Static Methods

For this example we have a class, Order, which has a static method, CalculateItemTotal.

Public Class Order
    Public Shared Function CalculateItemTotal(ByVal itemCost As Double, _
                                               ByVal quantity As Integer _
                                              ) As Double
        Return itemCost * quantity
    End Function
End Class

Starting from either the Class View window or the class diagram, you can invoke static methods. Right-clicking the class will bring up the context menu from which you can select the appropriate method from the Invoke Static Method sub-menu.

If the Invoke Static Method menu item doesn't exist, it may be that the project you are working on is not set as the startup project. In order for the object test bench to work with your class, you need to set the project it belongs to as the startup project by right-clicking the project and selecting "Set as Startup Project." ...