@namespaceAccessible class's properties are not accessible from another package

Question

I am trying to create two second-generation (2GP) packages with the same namespace but running into an issue where one of the packages is not able to access the properties of a class from the other package despite the class being annotated with @namespaceAccessible and throwing an error.

@namespaceAccessible
public with sharing class AuraResult {

    public Boolean success = false;
    public String message = ''; 

    @namespaceAccessible
    public AuraResult() {

    }

    @namespaceAccessible
    public Boolean getSuccess() {
        return success;
    }

    @namespaceAccessible
    public void setSuccess(Boolean success) {
        this.success = success;
    }

    @namespaceAccessible
    public String getMessage() {
        return message;
    }

    @namespaceAccessible
    public void setMessage(String message) {
        this.message = message;
    }
}

In the example above, I am able to access the @namespaceAccessible methods i.e., getMessage() and setMessage() methods, but unable to access the properties directly:

AuraResult ar = new AuraResult();
String message = ar.getMessage(); // Works
Boolean success = ar.getSuccess(); // Works

message = ar.message; // Throws an error: "Variable is not visible".
success = ar.success; // Throws an error: "Variable is not visible".

Using the getter and setter methods is not ideal as it requires a lot of refactoring in my package. Is this expected behavior or a salesforce bug?

Answer 1

Edit: This is a Known Issue. Make sure you mark "This affects me" if you want to be updated when this updated.

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You need to annotate the members if you want them to be directly accessible:

@namespaceAccessible public Boolean success = false;
@namespaceAccessible public String message = ''; 

The docs specifically state:

The @namespaceAccessible makes public Apex in a package available to other packages that use the same namespace. Without this annotation, Apex classes, methods, interfaces, and properties defined in a 2GP package aren’t accessible to the other packages with which they share a namespace. Apex that is declared global is always available across all namespaces, and needs no annotation. (emphasis added).

You need to explicitly grant access per member.