I found out that when cleaning IE download history, an object that implements IDownloadHistoryDatabase is created.
Actually the object is being created by calling into ieproxy.dll and uses its IPSFactoryBuffer implementation.
I have been able to create the object but I can't use it as I don't know the interface definition.
CComPtr<IUnknown> spUnk;
spFactory->CreateProxy(0, IID_IDownloadHistoryDatabase, &spProxyBuffer, (void**)&spUnk);
I tried querying for IProvideClassInfo using spUnk but it is not implemented.
Does anybody have this interface definition? or any idea on how to find out the vtable structure for this interface?
Related
I'm sorry for editing but I got the feeling like my question was not specific enough.
I have a Host Application, a Interface.dll and a Plugin.dll. Within my Host Application I'm globally using a Instance of a class.
However: My Plugin.dll (which implements my iInterface form the Interface.dll) needs to have access to that specific instance of my class in the Host Application.
By having my Functions names within the interface, I can access those functions in the plugin from the host application, but how can I access the global class instance from the plugin?
I cannot write
Public Interface IPlugin
Sub SetInstance(ByRef MyClassInstance As MyClass)
End Interface
But this es exactly what I want to do...
Thank you very much for your help.
There is no way to implement the class from the host application within an interface. The only way would be referencing as object which will cause plenty of other problems.
Solution was to export the common classes into a own library (.dll) and instantiate this library to both - the host application and the plugin and in the interface.
Now passing the reference is possible without any problems as if all the different code parts were within the same namespace.
Thank you guys for your help.
I want to be able to define in my web.config the type of connexion my object will use to get data (variable) (from an xml or from a databases).
I though about using a Strategie Pattern, but I'm somewhat stuck by the need to write somewhere the name of the class, which I do not want.
Any suggestions?
Additionnal info
I have the interface IContext.
It's implemented in ContextXML and ContextDB.
I have the class Context which has a IContext member (called _context).
The Context class reads (through ContextConfiguration) app.config.
I want _context to be able to be a ContextXML or a ContextDB... or a ContextJSon or any other new class that would implements IContext.
Have you thought about creating a ContextManager class and employing "configuration by convention"?
What I would do, is add a member getName to your IContext interface - this just returns a nice human-readable string for each implementation - as simple as "ContextXML" for your ContextXML class.
When your ContextManager (probably a Singleton, BTW) starts up, it scans a known directory for IContext implementations, instantiating them by reflection (or some other mechanism, I'm not familiar with VB.Net but I'm sure there's a way), and placing them in a collection.
Now when you are building up Context objects, you can ask your ContextManager for a suitable IContext - either explicitly [e.g. getIContextByName("ContextDB")] or with a simpler method that just returns whatever has been configured by some other mechanism - i.e. a suite of methods something like this:
getPossibleIContextImplementationNames()
setCurrentIContextImplementation({name})
getCurrentIContext()
Just as an aside, are you stuck with that naming? Because having a Context object that uses an IContext seems a little unusual. If your IContext implementations are actually used to retrieve data from somewhere, why not call the interface IDAO or IDataAccessor?
I have a COM interface GUID but I don't know that interface definition. I don't know what methods it has, what parameters they have and so on. How can I obtain such information? Is it possible in general?
Practical problem is obtaining interface definition for few COM interfaces defined in actxprxy.dll. For example IFileDialogPrivate ({AC92FFC5-F0E9-455A-906B-4A83E74A803B}). (Obviously the interface is not documented and the name does suggest there is a reason for that.) I tried to use OLE/COM Object Viewer (OleView.exe) for that but wasn't able to get the interface definition.
I am trying to implement IFileDialogPrivate while doing some experiments on forcing IExplorerBrowser control to filter Windows 7 library folders. IFileDialog (which seems to use IExplorerBrowser) does it somehow and IExplorerBrowser askes service provider for IFileDialog and IFileDialogPrivate if ICommDlgBrowser is provided so I tryied to explore that interface. (Also it asks for few other interestingly named interface - could be useful).
I've been battling with AS3 for a little while now, and I'm working on a simple application using only actionscript and the FlashDevelop/flex-compiler combo. I've hit a bit of a wall in my fledgling OOP understanding, and I'm wondering whether someone might be able to point me in the right direction. I have genuinely read several books, and spent many hours reading online tutorials etc, but something's just not clicking!
What's baffling me is this: When something is declared 'public', according to what I read, it is therefore available anywhere in the application (and should therfore be used with care!) However, when I try to use public properties and methods in my program, they most definitely are not available anywhere other than from the class/object that instantiated them.
This leads me to conclude that even if objects (of different class) are instantiated from the same (say 'main') class, they are not able to communicate with each other at all, even through public members.
If so, then fair enough, but I've honestly not seen this explained properly anywhere. More to the point, how do different objects communicate with other then? and what does Public actually mean then, if it only works through a direct composition hierarchy? If one has to write applications based only on communication from composer class to it's own objects (and presumably use events for, er, everything else?) - isn't this incredibly restrictive?
I'm sure this is basic OOP stuff, so my apologies in advance!
Any quick tips or links would be massively appreciated.
There are different topics you are covering in your question. Let me clarify:
What does the modifier public mean?
How can instances of the same class communicate to each other?
--
1.
In OOP you organize your code with objects. An object needs to be instantiated to provide its functionality. The place where you instantiate the object can be considered as the "context". In Flash the context might be the first frame, in a pure AS3 movie, it might be the main class, in Flex it could be the main mxml file. In fact, the context is always an object, too. Class modifier of your object public class MyClass tells your context whether it is allowed to instantiate the object or not. If set to internal, the context must live in the same directory as the class of the object. Otherwise it is not allowed to create a new object of the class. Private or protected are not valid class modifiers. Public class ... means that any context may create an object of that class. Next: Not only instantiation is controlled by these modifiers but also the visibility of a type. If set to internal, you cannot use an expression like var obj : InternalType in a context that does not live in the same directory as Internal type.
What about methods and properties? Even if your context is allowed to access a type, certain properties and methods might be restricted internal/protected/private var/method and you perhaps are not able to invoke them.
Why we're having such restrictions? Answer is simple: Differnent developers may develop different parts of the same software. These parts should communicate only over defined interfaces. These interfaces should be as small as possible. The developer therefore declares as much code as possible to be hidden from outside and only the necessary types and properties publicly available.
Don't mix up with modifiers and global properties. The modifier only tells you if a context is allowed to see a type or method. The global variable is available throughout the code. So even if a class is declared to be public, instances of that class do not know each other by default. You can let them know by:
storing the instances in global variables
providing setter such as set obj1(obj1 : OBJ1) : void where each object needs to store the reference in an instance variable
passing the object as method arguments: doSomething(obj1 : OBJ1)
Hope this helps you to more understand OOP. I am happy to answer your follow up questions.
Jens
#Jens answer (disclaimer: I skimmed) appears to be completely correct.
However, I'm not sure it answers your question very directly, so I'll add a bit here.
A public property is a property of that class instance that is available for other objects to use(function: call, variable: access, etc). However, to use them you must have a reference (like a very basic pointer, if that helps?) to that object instance. The object that instantiates (creates, new ...) that object can take that reference by assigning it to a variable of that class type.
// Reference is now stored in 's'
public ExampleClass s = new ExampleClass();
If you'd like to, you do have the option of making a static property, which is available just by knowing the class name. That property will be shared by all instances of that class, and any external class can refer to it (assuming it's public static) by referring to the class name.
A public property is referred to by the reference you stored.
//public property access
s.foo
s.bar(var)
A static property is referred to by the class name.
//static property access
ExampleClass.foo
ExampleClass.bar(var)
Once you've created the instance, and stored the reference, to an object, you can pass it around as you'd like. The below object of type OtherExampleClass would receive the reference to 's' in its constructor, and would have to store it in a local variable of its own to keep the reference.
public OtherExampleClass s2 = new OtherExampleClass(s);
I've implemented a windows deskband (using the windows SDK sample) and need a way to communicate (one call to start IPC with another application, IPC is already working) with it.
My COM experience is very limited but extrapolating from what I've seen, I think it should be possible to create a new COM interface, implement it in the deskband object (which I have access to via IBandSite), call QueryInterface() for my own interface on it and then use it to call directly into the deskband.
I've tried this but ran into problems very quickly (main reason being: I've no idea what I'm actually doing most of the time ...)
So, my questions are: Is this a viable approach and can someone give me an outline on how to proceed if it is (or point to some resource that could be helpful - short of reading a COM book, which would be my last approach). If it is not, do alternatives come to mind ?
Thank you for your time and best wishes,
Rene.
Here's you path: you add a new interface into .idl file and also if you have a co-class in the .idl file that corresponds to you COM object you list that new interface in the co-class definition. Then you compile the .idl and this gets you a .h file and a .c file with identifiers - the C++ IID and C++ interface definition.
Then you inherit your COM object C++ class from the C++ interface and implement all methods of it. If for whatever reason you can't or don't want to implement a method you have to return E_NOTIMPL from that method implementation.
One very important final thing: you have to change QueryInterface() behavior in you COM object class. If you use ATL you have to add an entry into the COM map. If you don't use ATL change you QueryInterface() - see this question for how to implement QueryInterface() in case of implementing several COM interfaces.