Chapter 10 - Reflection and Attributes

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the application called reflections and the extensive use of attributes. Attributes are one type of metadata used to annotate code. They may be pre- or user-defined and help guide the developer toward those modules or classes that satisfy certain requirements. Reflection, in this sense, is analogous to searching on keywords except that attributes are derived classes and are replete with their own methods. Certain attributes, such as Obsolete, inform developers when a code is replaced and must be updated. The chapter introduces the process of reflection, creation and the usage of metadata by using these attributes. Reflection is the ability to look into and access information or metadata about an application itself. Applications such as debuggers, builders, and integrated development environments that extract and rely on this information are called meta-applications. For example, the IntelliSense feature of Visual Studio .NET presents to the user a list of available public members whenever a dot (.) is typed after a class name or an object reference. Furthermore, this chapter discusses reflection, hierarchy and description of metadata about assemblies, modules, classes, and its members.