Jim Lawrence
accessd at shaw.ca
Fri Nov 3 08:33:55 CST 2006
Great stuff Marty.... There does seem to be a number of considerations, before using this http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/04/RegFreeCOM/default.aspx?loc=& side=true#a ..and it is available at: http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/e/9/2e9bde04-3af1-4814-9f1e-733f732 369a3/RegFreeCOM.exe Just a comment Jim -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of MartyConnelly Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 3:37 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] Creating Managed Add-ins for Access 2007 BTW, did you ever try to use Registration-Free COM (http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/04/RegFreeCOM/), which William mentioned here some time ago? Yup it works calling a VB.Net wrapped com class dll from Access However the download from the article is missing a comclass.zip It is only 2 or 3 K, you need this to build any new classes. It is installed by Visual Studio but not VB Express. I don't have Visual Studio but found it in a .msi file downloadable from this simlar article by same author below. Just install it in the directory indicated in the article then it will appear in temporary templates in vb.Net IDE. It contains the COM Class template necessary for building new class projects. I suppose you could workaround it with your own GUID's but don't know the pitfuls. Visual Basic Fusion: Best Practices to Use Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic .NET Together http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html /vbbestprac.asp You may have a problem in the registering of the dll. Two ways to do this Install the project and open it in VB.Net, then do a Build this will register the dll with the com registry. There are step by step instuctions except for doing the final build in the first article. The build will also create a new tlb file and register the assembly in the GAC and register the dll. There are also standalone routines to do this too. To use Access set a reference to the tlb file that will be in a directory like below depending on where you installed the project. C:\Access files\VBFusion\VB2005\FX20Wrapper\bin\Release\FX20Wrapper.tlb The tlb will allow Access to see the class definitions and do a compile. Then just run your routine. The other way is to use the included install.bat to register the dll It uses regasm and gacutil to remove any previously named dll and reinstall in the registry. Haven't tried this method. See http://samples.gotdotnet.com/quickstart/howto/doc/Interop/Building_Samples_C OM2NET.aspx install batch file looks like this regasm "C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\system.windows.forms.dll" gacutil -u FX20Wrapper regasm /u "VB2005\FX20Wrapper\bin\Release\FX20Wrapper.dll" regasm /tlb "VB2005\FX20Wrapper\bin\Release\FX20Wrapper.dll" gacutil -i "VB2005\FX20Wrapper\bin\Release\FX20Wrapper.dll" Shamil Salakhetdinov wrote: >Yes, Marty, it should be doable just using VB 2005 Express. > ><<< >installing with GPAC's instead of a created msi from a wizard. > > >Yes, should be doable - but also .NET Framework SDK is needed I think >to extract type library from shared add-in's assembly using TlbExp.exe >utility, which is delivered in SDK or is tlbexp.exe also delivered in >.NET Framework itself?... > >BTW, did you ever try to use Registration-Free COM >(http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/04/RegFreeCOM/), which >William mentioned here some time ago? > >If that works OK then a Shared/COM Add-in can be probably installed >using xcopy given: > >- its assembly and related files; >- its typelib; >- its manifest file for RegFree COM (open question here is how(/what is >its >format) to make it?)... > >That would be great if it would work this way - it still might need to >set several registry entries to "inform" MS Access about presence of >com-add-in to load but this should be as easy as running once a .reg >file with needed registry entries... > >-- >Shamil > >-----Original Message----- >From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com >[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of >MartyConnelly >Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 11:43 PM >To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving >Subject: [AccessD] Creating Managed Add-ins for Access 2007 > >Interesting article from Ken Getz >Creating Managed Add-ins for Access 2007 >http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa902693.aspx > >You can probably do this without installing Visual Studio Tools and >just VB 2005 express but it might require filching the Shared Add-in >template class and installing with GPAC's instead of a created msi from >a wizard. > > > -- Marty Connelly Victoria, B.C. Canada -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com