Adding aspects to your code

Aspects are custom attributes that must be applied to some target declaration. Some aspects can target methods, while others can target properties or classes.

In this section, you'll learn how to use custom attributes to add aspects.

Adding aspects as custom attributes

Suppose you have a method that occasionally fails.

At the moment, CodeLens is displaying No aspect. This means that no aspect has been applied to this method yet.

To apply the Retry aspect, add it as a regular custom attribute, i.e. type [Retry]:

CodeLens now shows 1 aspect. When you hover your cursor on that text, it will show the following tooltip:

If you want to see the details, click on the text 1 aspect:

The displayed details are trivial in this example. However, this feature will prove helpful when you have several aspects on the same method, or when aspects are implicitly applied instead of explicitly applied using a custom attribute.

Adding more than one attribute

You can choose to add as many aspects as you need to a target method. In this example, if you want to log each retry attempt, you can use the Log aspect.

CodeLens now shows that two aspects are applied to the method FlakyMethod. If you click on the text 2 aspects, you can see the details that CodeLens offers:

Adding aspects via the refactoring menu

Instead of adding attributes manually, you can do it via the refactoring menu. You can call this menu by clicking on the lightbulb or screwdriver icon, or pressing Ctrl + ..

As you can see, the refactoring menu shows that three different aspects can be applied to this method. If you hover your mouse cursor over a menu item, you will see a preview of your code with the aspect custom attribute.

The refactoring menu is smart enough to know which aspect has already been applied and changes the recommendations accordingly. The following screenshot shows that after applying the Retry aspect, the refactoring menu only shows the available but unused aspects.