PostSharp offers two approaches to aspect-oriented development. The first, as explained in section Developing Simple Aspects, is very similar to object-oriented programming. It requires the aspect developer to override virtual methods or implement interfaces. This approach is very efficient for simple problems.
One way to grow in complexity with the first approach is to use the interface IAspectProvider (see Adding Aspects Dynamically). However, even this technique has its limitations.
This chapter documents the second approach, closer to the classic paradigm of aspect-oriented programming introduced by AspectJ. This approach allows developers to implement more complex design patterns using aspects. We call the aspects developed with this approach composite aspects, because they are freely composed of different elements named advices and pointcuts.
An advice is anything that adds a behavior or a structural element to an element of code. For instance, introducing a method into a class, intercepting a property setter, or catching exceptions, are advices.
A pointcut is a function returning a set of elements of code to which advices apply. For instance, a function returning the set of properties annotated with the custom attribute DataMember is a pointcut.
Classes supporting advices and pointcuts are available in the namespace PostSharp.Aspects.Advices.
A composite aspect generally derives from a class that does not define its own advices: AssemblyLevelAspect, TypeLevelAspect, InstanceLevelAspect, MethodLevelAspect, LocationLevelAspect or EventLevelAspect. As such, these aspects have no functionality. You can add functionalities by adding advices to the aspect.
Advices are covered in the following sections:
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| Adding Behaviors to Existing Members | Advices with equivalent functionality as OnMethodBoundaryAspect, MethodInterceptionAspect, LocationInterceptionAspect, and EventInterceptionAspect. |
| Introducing Interfaces, Methods, Properties and Events into Existing Classes | Make the aspect introduce an interface into the target class. The interface is implemented by the aspect itself. |
| Accessing Members of the Target Class | Make the aspect introduce a new method, property or event into the target class. The new member is implemented by the aspect itself. Conversely, the aspect can import a member of the target so that it can invoke it through a delegate. |