I thought I knew how to do this, but obviously not so I'd appreciate some help! I can't get my dll to register so I can instantiate it in a VBS, or elsewhere.
I wrote the following sample class, checked "Make assembly COM Visible", checked "Register for COM Interop", then built it. When I try to instantiate it from VBS I get the "Activex component can't create object" error.
This is the class code:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
namespace Smurf
{
public class Pants
{
public string Explode(bool Loud)
{
string result;
if (Loud)
result = "BANG";
else
result = "pop";
return result;
}
}
}
...and this is the VBS:
Dim a
Set a = CreateObject("Smurf.Pants")
msgbox("ok")
What else do I need to do?
Thanks :)
[edit]
Forgot to mention, after the first failure I tried REGSVR32 and REGASM - no help!
[/edit]
Note that when I try REGSVR32, I get this message:
The Module "C:...\Smurf.dll" was loaded but the entry-point DllRegisterServer was not found. Make sure that "C:...\Smurf.dll" is a valid DLL or OCX file and then try again.
How helpful is that??
This is the latest version of the code:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace Smurf
{
[Guid("EAA4976A-45C3-4BC5-BC0B-E474F4C3C83F")]
public interface IPants
{
[DispId(1)]
string Explode(bool Loud);
}
[Guid("7BD20046-DF8C-44A6-8F6B-687FAA26FA71"),
InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIDispatch)]
public interface IPantsEvents
{
string Explode(bool Loud);
}
[ComVisible(true)]
[Guid("0D53A3E8-E51A-49C7-944E-E72A2064F938"),
ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.None),
ComSourceInterfaces(typeof(IPantsEvents))]
public class Pants : IPants
{
public Pants() { }
[ComVisible(true)]
[ComRegisterFunction()]
public static void DllRegisterServer(string key) { }
[ComVisible(true)]
[ComUnregisterFunction()]
public static void DllUnregisterServer(string key) { }
[ComVisible(true)]
public string Explode(bool Loud)
{
string result;
if (Loud)
result = "BANG";
else
result = "pop";
return result;
}
}
}
There could be a few different things at play here. First, you'll want to use the regasm tool with the /codebase /tlb switch from an elevated command prompt (assuming Windows Vista, 7 or Windows Server 2008). Something like:
regasm "Path to Smurf.dll" /codebase /tlb
Once you have registered the dll using regasm you should be able to invoke it using VBS, VBA or VB6.
I was able to use early binding and late binding from VBA to call the Explode
method. However, when I tried from VBScript I received the "ActiveX can't create object error as you did."
I'm running on Windows 7 64 bit, and I recalled that this can cause problems when compiling to 32 bit dlls and running them on 64 bit operating systems. On a whim, I fired up a command prompt and entered:
C:\Windows\SysWow64\CScript.exe "Path to VBScript"
The result was that the script ran correctly and displayed "Pop" on screen.
Here's the somewhat simplified C# code I used as well as the contents of the VBScript file.
namespace Smurf
{
[Guid("EAA4976A-45C3-4BC5-BC0B-E474F4C3C83F")]
public interface IPants
{
string Explode(bool Loud);
}
[Guid("7BD20046-DF8C-44A6-8F6B-687FAA26FA71"),
InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIDispatch)]
public interface IPantsEvents
{
string Explode(bool Loud);
}
[ComVisible(true)]
[Guid("0D53A3E8-E51A-49C7-944E-E72A2064F938")]
[ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.None)]
[ComSourceInterfaces(typeof(IPantsEvents))]
public class Pants : IPants
{
[ComVisible(true)]
public string Explode(bool Loud)
{
string result;
if (Loud)
result = "BANG";
else
result = "pop";
return result;
}
}
}
VBScript:
Dim x
Set x = CreateObject("Smurf.Pants")
MsgBox (x.Explode(False))
Set x = Nothing