{"id":6033,"date":"2007-06-01T22:59:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-01T22:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/2007\/06\/01\/so-what-does-comclass-actually-do\/"},"modified":"2024-07-05T14:45:55","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T21:45:55","slug":"so-what-does-comclass-actually-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/so-what-does-comclass-actually-do\/","title":{"rendered":"So what does ComClass actually do?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I came across a <\/font>really cool article<\/font><\/a> yesterday by James Ashley, which shows some of the cool things you can do with the <\/font>Interop Forms Toolkit 2.0<\/font><\/a>.   The three VB6 examples cover consuming a WebService (complete with a Dilbert icon showing up in the VB6 toolbox!), implementing multithreading using the BackgroundWorker component, and last but not least a cool WPF cube.   Best of all there\u2019s tons of code samples and  no less than *15<\/b>* screenshots!<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

Along with the samples there\u2019s also some C# translations of the templates that ship with the Interop Toolkit.  While playing with these templates I was reminded of some of the subtle differences in how the VB and C# compilers handle COM Interop.  The biggest difference is in how they handle the ComClass attribute, which we\u2019ll see by looking at some code:<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

    public<\/span> event<\/span> System.EventHandler<\/span> ButtonClicked;<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

    private<\/span> void<\/span> button1_Click(object<\/span> sender, System.EventArgs<\/span> e)<\/span><\/p>\n

    {<\/span><\/p>\n

        if<\/span> (null<\/span>!=this<\/span>.ButtonClicked)<\/span><\/p>\n

            this<\/span>.ButtonClicked.Invoke(this<\/span>, e);<\/span><\/p>\n

    }<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

    Public<\/span> Event<\/span> ButtonClicked As<\/span> System.EventHandler<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

    Private<\/span> Sub<\/span> Button1_Click(ByVal<\/span> sender As<\/span> System.Object, ByVal<\/span> e As<\/span> System.EventArgs) Handles<\/span> Button1.Click<\/span><\/p>\n

        RaiseEvent<\/span> ButtonClicked(Me<\/span>, e)<\/span><\/p>\n

    End<\/span> Sub<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

In both cases we\u2019re exposing a public event, and invoking it when the button is clicked.  By using <\/font>Reflector<\/font><\/a>, let\u2019s look at what gets generated under the covers:<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

C#<\/font><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

[ComClass<\/span><\/a>(\"c6cbbae7-44b8-422e-840f-cbaba8e3238c\"<\/span>, \"bf3ef778-6ca7-4ec8-a045-87be56528803\"<\/span>, \"37b0d42a-6740-45ec-adc6-38fcbcdc48e4\"<\/span>)]<\/span><\/pre>\n
public<\/span> class<\/span> InteropUserControl<\/span><\/a> : UserControl<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/pre>\n
{<\/span><\/p>\n
\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n
}<\/span><\/p>\n
 <\/font><\/p>\n
VB<\/font><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n
<DesignerGenerated(), ComClass(“a2ee6169-9a0d-4930-b8bb-ee71307c43b3”<\/span>, “75ff3d57-6448-40ac-a294-68252180cacd”<\/span>, “2b04895c-43f8-44b3-b187-00556ef53a6a”<\/span>), Guid(“a2ee6169-9a0d-4930-b8bb-ee71307c43b3”<\/span>), ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.None), ComSourceInterfaces(“VBControl.InteropUserControl+__InteropUserControl”<\/span>)<\/b>> _<\/span><\/p>\n
Public<\/span> Class<\/span> InteropUserControl<\/span><\/p>\n
    Inherits<\/span> UserControl<\/span><\/p>\n
    Implements<\/span> _InteropUserControl<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
 <\/font><\/p>\n
\u2026<\/font><\/p>\n
 <\/font><\/p>\n
<InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIDispatch), Guid(“2b04895c-43f8-44b3-b187-00556ef53a6a”<\/span>), ComVisible(True<\/span>)> _<\/span><\/p>\n
Public<\/span> Interface<\/span> __InteropUserControl<\/span><\/p>\n
    <DispId(1)> _<\/span><\/p>\n
    Sub<\/span> Click()<\/span><\/p>\n
    <DispId(2)> _<\/span><\/p>\n
    Sub<\/span> DblClick()<\/span><\/p>\n
    <DispId(3)> _<\/span><\/p>\n
    Sub<\/span> ButtonClicked(ByVal<\/span> sender As<\/span> Object<\/span>, ByVal<\/span> e As<\/span> EventArgs)<\/span><\/p>\n
End<\/span> Interface<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
 <\/span><\/p>\n
<Guid(“75ff3d57-6448-40ac-a294-68252180cacd”<\/span>), ComVisible(True<\/span>)> _<\/span><\/p>\n
Public<\/span> Interface<\/span> _InteropUserControl<\/span><\/p>\n
    <DispId(1)> _<\/span><\/p>\n
    Property<\/span> Visible() As<\/span> Boolean<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
    <DispId(2)> _<\/span><\/p>\n
    Property<\/span> Enabled() As<\/span> Boolean<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
    <DispId(3)> _<\/span><\/p>\n
    Property<\/span> ForegroundColor() As<\/span> Integer<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
    <DispId(4)> _<\/span><\/p>\n
    Property<\/span> BackgroundColor() As<\/span> Integer<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
    <DispId(5)> _<\/span><\/p>\n
    Property<\/span> BackgroundImage() As<\/span> Image<\/span><\/p>\n
    <DispId(6)> _<\/span><\/p>\n
    Sub<\/span> Refresh()<\/span><\/p>\n
End<\/span> Interface<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
End<\/span> Class<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
 <\/font><\/p>\n
The VB compiler has generated two extra interfaces and applied the ComSourceInterfaces attribute to the control, which it knows to do when it sees the ComClass attribute.  ComSourceInterfaces is used to link the event sink interface to the class.  (<ComClass> actually does a lot more than just making events work automatically, but we’ll leave that until another day).<\/font><\/p>\n
<\/font> <\/p>\n
What this means is that the VB.NET-compiled event will be visible in VB6, whereas using the C# compiler we\u2019d have to define this interface ourselves.  This also means that certain members the template adds like Visible, ForegroundColor, Refresh etc. are automatically exposed by the VB compiler; it\u2019s still possible to do this in C#, it just takes some extra steps.<\/font><\/p>\n
 <\/font><\/p>\n
Both VB and C# offer a lot of powerful features you can use to extend VB6, but it\u2019s important to be aware of the differences, especially when working with events.  <\/font>For more information on the Interop Toolkit be sure to check out our <\/font>webcast<\/font><\/a> on Wednesday.  Also stay tuned to this blog for a series of Interop articles by Todd Apley, one of our QA leads.<\/font><\/p>\n
 <\/font><\/p>\n
Jonathan<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I came across a really cool article yesterday by James Ashley, which shows some of the cool things you can do with the Interop Forms Toolkit 2.0.   The three VB6 examples cover consuming a WebService (complete with a Dilbert icon showing up in the VB6 toolbox!), implementing multithreading using the BackgroundWorker component, and last but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":260,"featured_media":8818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,195],"tags":[83,165,170],"class_list":["post-6033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-visual-basic","tag-jonathan-aneja","tag-vb2005","tag-vb6_migrationinterop"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"
I came across a really cool article yesterday by James Ashley, which shows some of the cool things you can do with the Interop Forms Toolkit 2.0.   The three VB6 examples cover consuming a WebService (complete with a Dilbert icon showing up in the VB6 toolbox!), implementing multithreading using the BackgroundWorker component, and last but […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/vbteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}