I am supposed to do a IVR project using Pronexus. After downloading their DLLs, my code hit COMExceptions regularly. I have searched the net and learned about Component Object Model. Now I am in trouble as I do not know how should I write my codes to extend from the DLLs that is accessing unmanaged codes.
So my question is, can someone point me to a direction how can I proceed from here? Should I learn how to code with COM libraries? Any good sources to recommend?
Found a clue from msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms973872.aspx (good read for developer new to Component Object Model)
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I'm working on a Solidworks Addin using VB.NET that utilizes the Solidworks API and CAMWorks API.
Basically, Solidworks has integrated a free version of CAMWorks dubbed "SolidworksCAM". The API dll reference for CAMWorks and SolidworksCAM are different, each with a unique GUID, but maintaining the same simple name of "Interop.CAMWorksLib.dll". The API functions are 100% the same, just each software ships with a different GUID for their API. This GUID ties back to the COM assembly loaded in Solidworks, so if Solidworks has SolidworksCAM loaded and my addin is complied with the CAMWorks API reference it will fail to retrieve the COM object.
How can I achieve compatibility between these two APIs without having two projects? Is it even possible? Thanks!
Whenever I post a question to a board it seems like I always solve it soon after.
For future reference, I used Reflection to dynamically load the Dlls. Below is some more detailed information.
I put the Dlls in two different folders in my project and set them to Copy. I then used Assembly.LoadFile to load the dll and get its assembly. I used this assembly to get the constructor class "CWAppClass" and fed its type into Activator.CreateInstance to get an instance of the main CWApp class. This way you can use whichever one doesn't error. Thanks for the help!
After taking advice to not use LoadFile(), i have found that there is a method in the Solidworks API that allows you to do this. By using Sldworks::GetAddInObject you can get the addin object for whichever addin you choose. Then you can use the CAMWORKSADDINLib to interact with this. Thanks for the suggestion, this it the perfect solution for my problem.
I have a few different projects that all get mixed and matched into different types of solutions.
For projects, I currently have
EngineProj: c++, built as a .lib
GameProj: c++, built as a .exe
EditorProj: c++/clr, built as a .exe
For solutions, I currently have
Game: c++, built with EngineProj and GameProj
Editor: c++/clr, built with EngineProj and EditorProj
This has worked great for games. I have been able to make a few different game solutions that keep reusing the shared EngineProj.
The Editor solution has EditorProj build a .exe with a WindowsForm object called EditorForm. This is used to edit generic game data that is common for all game solutions.
Now, though, I want to be able to do the same thing for my Editor that I do with my games. I want to be able to make game specific versions of the Editor that reuse as much project setup and code as possible. Here is what I am working towards.
For projects, I am planning
EngineProj: c++, built as a .lib
GameCoreProj: c++, built as a .lib
GameExeProj: c++, built as a .exe (a very thin and small project)
EditorCoreProj: c++/clr, built as a .lib
EditorGameExeProj: c++/clr, built as a .exe
For solutions, I am planning
Game: c++, built with EngineProj, GameCoreProj, and GameExeProj
GameEditor: c++/clr, built with EngineProj, GameCoreProj, EditorCoreProj, and EditorGameExeProj
I am having troubles getting my GameEditor solution to come together.
The idea is for EditorCoreProj to provide the same EditorForm that EditorProj did; only in a .lib instead. EditorGameExeProj would then build with GameCoreProj.lib and EditorCorProj.lib. EditorGameExeProj would support a new WindowsForm object that derives from EditorForm, but implements new features unique to the needs of GameCorProj.
Various forms of unresolved externals have been plaguing me for a couple days now.
It seems that my issues stem from the fact that EditorCoreProj is a c++/clr project.
I read many articles and tried many different approaches, but eventually I found some reading that suggested that making a .lib would never work. It sounds like c++/clr .libs are not supported.
So, then, I tried making EditorCoreProj build as a .dll. For hours, I tried to get EditorGameExeProj to import the .dll. I read that maybe I need to tag everything for export and import. That sounded like a lot of work, and so I started just making some test solutions. However, that continually resulted in unresolved externals, too.
I am pretty new to making a .dll; I have always preferred .libs. Maybe I am just encountering newb issues with .dlls. At this point though, I have spent a couple days trying to get this setup.
And so, finally, my question.
Am I headed in the right direction? Maybe there is something much easier I should be doing?
Thank you for your time
I ended up sticking to the plan, and got everything working. I don't know if there was a better route to take, but this does full-fill all of my needs.
I have some source code for the BaNa Noise Resilient Pitch Detection Algorithm downloaded here, and I am planning to use the code they provided as a library for a mobile app I'm making. It's written in Objective-C for MATLAB and so I'd probably need to deploy it to a DLL to be able to use it for external applications.
The only thing is that I'm a student, and I don't really have the funds to purchase MATLAB just to be able to work with this algorithm, and so I'm downloading Octave, which was a suggested alternative. This should be able to make working and editing the code for my research possible, but my concern is if I can deploy the code into usable libraries for the application in which I'm going to make using the Unity Game Engine.
I'm not sure if the direction I'm going at will bring me to a dead-end or not, so I'd like to ask for insights regarding this.
What I have now:
1) Source code in MATLAB (.m files)
2) Octave (currently downloading, I'm not even sure if it has the built-in methods I need)
What I plan to do:
1) Use Octave to edit code and test out if the code I have works
2) Deploy it to a DLL file (Is this even possible with Octave?)
3) Use that DLL in Unity3D
Would you guys have any suggestions, alternative workarounds, or foreseeable problems I may encounter with this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance,
Justin
Depending on what functionality from MATLAB (and especially toolboxes), the code should run just fine in Octave, maybe with some minor modifications. If however, the code relies heavily on some toolbox functionality that has not been implemented in Octave, then you have a fair amount of recoding to do.
There is not easy way that I know of to generate a DLL from Octave. Having said that, have a look at How do I create a simple Octave distributable without installing Octave and this section of the Octave documentation on the subject of generating standalone programs from Octave, it might point you in the right direction.
Is there any way to reference a tlb export on Mono?
I am really stuck with .NET on one of my only remaining projects on MS platforms and would like to move away from it. The only problem is that the web site is dependent on a COM library that is simply a socket wrapper enforcing a messaging protocol. I could reverse the code (I actually made a 10k line attempt) but there's nothing better than the original if it works.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
EDIT:
The link is much appreciated, but I noticed a reference to xptimport but nothing more. Anyone know of a way to currently implement a COM reference in Mono for a non-Windows machine?
COM Interop in Monohttp://www.mono-project.com/COM_Interop
I noticed the other day that the Zune PC Software exposes a type library (ZuneCore.dll). It seems to be related to the WMPLib API in some way but I can't figure out how to use it either from VB6 or C#.
Has anybody tried this and had any luck?
Dave
May be an old question, but this link might help: http://zunelcd.codeplex.com/ If you download the source for this project one of the class libraries is a decent API for communicating with the Zune Software.
i just found out about this -> http://soapitstop.com/blogs/fleamarket/archive/2008/03/03/read-the-zune-collection-in-net-from-zune-s-own-api.aspx but it seems a bit outdated Initialize method now takes some parameters and i dont know what to put there!
Try adding a reference to it from a .NET project in Visual Studio. Perhaps this namespace will appear magically: MicrosoftZuneLibrary