Alex,

The problem is that your oConnection property is not static and your methods trying to reference are static. As you probably know, static methods and properties can be accessed via the class without instantiating the object like this:

MainDQMClass.ListFiles(@"C:\Windows");

Non static members can ONLY be accessed via an object (instantiated class) as in:

MainDQMClass mdqmc = new MainDQMClass();
mdqmc.Connection = new SQLConnection();

If you want to stick with static methods, you'll either want to create and destroy the connection within each method (which I suspect you don't want to do), or add a connection parameter to all the static methods, create it in your calling code and pass it to each static method. Alternatively, you could make all your methods not static and just instantiate the class and it should run fine (which is maybe what your original intent was anyway).

HTH,
Chad

>I am having a basic scope problem that I don't yet grok completely.
>I created a sample winform as proof of concept. It worked so well that I basically finished the working portion of the program right there. The gist is a basic program to periodically read ASCII data and insert into SQL Server. No big difficulty as a learning project (C#). As this will be run from a task scheduler, it needs no interface. I created a Console project (my first .Net console app) and copied everything but the interface from the Winform. Changed all MessageBox.Show() with a log to xml routine and changed the getDir() to selecxt a sample file to a routine that reads all files in a folder, process them and moves them to archive folder. Each routine works fine.
>
>Putting it all together I find a scope problem the Winform example did not have and it is basically the same code!
>
>I want to establish a SQLConnection and reuse it through the whole program. The basic program skeleton is as follows (most of the unimportant code and comments are stripped):
>

>using System;
>using System.IO;
>using System.Data;
>using System.Data.SqlClient;
>using System.Data.SqlTypes;
>namespace ConsoleSample
>{
>  class MainDQMClass
>  {
>    public const string INPUTFOLDER = @"c:\temp\";
>
>    // here's the one I want to define globally to be reused
>    // but I can't get to work. Is this the correct way?
>    public SqlConnection oConnection;
>
>    [STAThread]
>    public static int Main(string[] args)
>    {
>      int nReturnCode = 0;
>
>      // global error handler
>      try
>      {
>        // reads input folder (dir)
>        // process each file found
>        ListFiles(INPUTFOLDER);
>      }
>      catch (Exception e)
>      {
>        nReturnCode = -1;
>        // call a method to log error
>      }
>      return nReturnCode;
>    }
>
>    public static void ListFiles(string cFolder)
>    {
>      DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(cFolder);
>      foreach (FileInfo f in dir.GetFiles("*.txt"))
>      {
>        // for test purposes, list filename to console
>        Console.Write(f.FullName+"\n");
>
>        // process each file
>        bool lWasProcessed=ProcessInput(f);
>
>        // move processed file to archive folder
>        if (lWasProcessed)
>        {
>          MoveToArchive(f);
>        }
>      }
>    }
>
>    public static bool ProcessInput(FileInfo f)
>    {
>      bool lError=false;
>
>      // create a connection, keep open while processing batch
>      try
>      {
>        oConnection = ConnectToSqlServer();
>      }
>      catch (Exception oErr)
>      {
>        lError=true;
>        // log error
>      }
>
>      // if connection is open here is where we do the whole
>      // data processing...
>      // oConnection is used extensively in the many methods that follow (not shown)
>      // all fail to compile as oConnection sems to be out of scope
>    }
>
>    public static SqlConnection ConnectToSqlServer()
>    {
>      string cUID="test";
>      string cPWD="PASSWORD";
>
>      // Create the connection
>      SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection();
>      conn.ConnectionString = "server=xxxx;"+
>        "uid="+cUID+
>        ";pwd="+cPWD+
>        ";database=DataQuality";
>
>      try
>      {
>        conn.Open();
>      }
>      catch (Exception oErr)
>      {
>        //"Failed to connect to data source.\n"+oErr.Message
>      }
>      return conn;
>    }
>  }
>}
>

>
>The compiler error I keep getting is:
>

>An object reference is required for the nonstatic field, method or property 'xxx'
>

>This happens on every method that uses the connection. What am I missing that is so basic as scope?
>How do I define and establish the connection to be reused in a Console exe?
>
>TIA