Integrating Delphi COM

BillL — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:19:00 GMT

Gary did some work using Delphi COM a few years back -- he integrated VBA into a Delphi application.

Here's an example of the tiny managed proxy, called ObjectModelAgent.

-Host app calls SetOM with IDispatch* or IUnknown* parameter.

-Addin calls GetOM

-Proxy layer code for GetOM marshals the COM ptr to a managed Object

Here's example for the Addin source:

<System.AddIn.AddIn("AppAddIn", Version:="1.0", Publisher:="", Description:="")> _
Partial Class MacroAddIn

Public Sub Macro1()

End Sub

#Region "Startup Code"
Dim Application As Interop.Assembly.Application

Private Sub MacroAddIn_Startup(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Startup
Me.Application = CType(Me.GetOM(), Interop.Assembly.Application)

End Sub

Private Sub MacroAddIn_Shutdown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Shutdown

End Sub
#End Region

End Class
==

To use this example:

-The host would be able to call managed code method SetOM().

-The COM object Model would be fed to tlbimp to create an interop assembly.

- and the VSTA addin project would set a reference to the interop assembly

Another approach is to make a similar tiny unmanaged proxy using COM typelibrary to pass the object model instead of the managed ObjectModelAgent exanple attached.

The host application would do something like this:

#region VSTA Integration Code

private Interop.Assembly.Application m_Application;

omAgent = new ObjectModelAgent.ObjectModelAgent();

omAgent.SetOM(m_Application);

//pass OMAgent as host object to hook up with VSTA addin entry point

InitializeVSTA(omAgent, MainFrameHWND);

LoadMacros(); // when macro addin loads, the add-in: calls proxy of ObjectModelAgent.GetOM", gets instance of m_application, casts it to Interop.Assembly.Application, this allows it to call directly into host COM OM

#endregion // VSTA Integration Code

Problem using OMAgent

BillL — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:13:00 GMT

I would like to continue with the OMAgent thus avoiding the annoying hard coded proxy which is used in the ShapeApp samples. Is it somehow possible to take the NND functionality from the ‘ShapeAppMFC-MultiMacroStorageV3’ or another sample and add it to the ‘ShapeAppBasicMFCWithOMAgent’?

What seems to be the current problem is the call to GetHostObject which fails when running from the IDE (i.e. from OnBuildDone), thus the remoteObject becomes null:

proxyOMAgent.cs:

void Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime.IEntryPoint.Initialize(global::System.IServiceProvider serviceProvider)

{

…

this.remoteObject = this.providerHost.GetHostObject(this.PrimaryType, this.PrimaryCookie) as OMAgent;

…

}

>>Is it somehow possible to take the NND functionality from the ‘ShapeAppMFC-MultiMacroStorageV3’ or another sample and add it to the ‘ShapeAppBasicMFCWithOMAgent’?

Yes, and it's not too difficult.

>>What seems to be the current problem is the call to GetHostObject which fails when running from the IDE (i.e. from OnBuildDone), thus the remoteObject becomes null.

proxyOMAgent.cs:

void Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime.IEntryPoint.Initialize(global::System.IServiceProvider serviceProvider)

{

…

this.remoteObject = this.providerHost.GetHostObject(this.PrimaryType, this.PrimaryCookie) as OMAgent;

…

}

Be sure that you are loading the correct add-in and correct proxy and that the hosttypemap provider code in the host application is finding and providing the correct type inside the method

GetHostObject(this.PrimaryType, this.PrimaryCookie)

VSTA Q & A Blog : OMAgent

Integrating Delphi COM

Problem using OMAgent