Instantiating a class the parameter passed to it's constructor shows A field initializer cannot reference the non static field

Question

I have started creating a framework in Selenium Webdriver in C#. I have a base class and a HomePage class. HomePage inherits the base class. When I instantiate the HomePage class I am getting the error:

A field initializer cannot reference the non static field, method or property autobot_automation.Base.BasePageDriver.get

I have declared the driver variable in the base class and initialised it in the constructor. I do not know why the compiler is showing the error.

My Base Class is:

using OpenQA.Selenium;
using OpenQA.Selenium.Support.PageObjects;
using autobot_automation.Pages.HomePage;
using autobot_automation.Pages.Base;

namespace autobot_automation.Base
{
public class BasePage 
{
    public IWebDriver Driver { get; set; }

    public BasePage(IWebDriver driver) 
    {
        Driver = driver;
        PageFactory.InitElements(Driver, this);

    }

    public void GoToURL(string url)
    {
        Driver.Navigate().GoToUrl(url);
    }

    #region Page Objects
    public HomePage homepage = new HomePage(Driver);

    #endregion
}
}

My HomePage Class is:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using OpenQA.Selenium;
using OpenQA.Selenium.Support.PageObjects;
using autobot_automation.Pages;
using autobot_automation.Base;

namespace autobot_automation.Pages.HomePage
{
    public class HomePage : BasePage
    {
        //private IWebDriver Driver { get; set; }

        public HomePage(IWebDriver driver) : base(driver)
        {
            //Driver = driver;
            //PageFactory.InitElements(Driver, this);       
        }
    }
}

Suggestions please to help me resolve this. Thanks

Answer 1

The line public HomePage homepage = new HomePage(Driver); in BasePage will be executed before the constructor. It will create new HomePage object with the driver (null at this point) which in turn initialize the Driver property with null.

I suggest you create some kind of support class which will hold the HomePage instance instead of BasePage.

If you insist on keeping it there (not a good design IMHO) creat a constructor which will receive a HomePage object as parameter.