Managed, Native, and COM Interop Team

Created Issue: TlbImp: Replace well known interfaces like IStream with their existing managed definition

tomenglert — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:33:26 GMT

Many of our interfaces use IStream to interchange data.
Now MIDL generates a copy of the IStream interface in every TLB - which are translated into a different RCWs, so you can't use the IStream provided by one interface to pass the data to another interface defined in a different TLB since the interfaces RCWs refer to different IStream RCWs.
Also this makes it impossible to generate a generic Stream adapter since this would need to derive from all possible IStream definitions to work.
We currently solve this by disassembling the interop and replacing all references to an IStream with the System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComTypes.IStream, so this would be a perfect candidate to make it into TlbImp!

Since this problem applies to all types defined in System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComTypes they all should be translated properly by TlbImp.

Commented Issue: 'Data4' section of GUID incorrectly generated as a string

jaredp110680 — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:21:58 GMT

When converting a GUID, the interop assistant thinks that Data4 should be a string:

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.StructLayoutAttribute(System.Runtime.InteropServices.LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet=System.Runtime.InteropServices.CharSet.Ansi)]
public struct GUID
{
/// unsigned int
public uint Data1;

/// unsigned short
public ushort Data2;

/// unsigned short
public ushort Data3;

/// unsigned char[8]
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalAsAttribute(System.Runtime.InteropServices.UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst=8)]
public string Data4;
}

It’s really an array of bytes, and even calling System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetString(bytes) or System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(bytes) didn’t create the correct string. Changing the marshalling definition to an array of bytes worked:

[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray, SizeConst = 8)]
internal byte[] Data4;

This came from generating the definition for WINTRUST_BLOB_INFO from the SDK (by pasting it in.)
Comments: ** Comment from web user: jaredp110680 **

Yes. The intention of this part of the tool is to not display a native type when there is a better equivalent managed type.

Commented Issue: TlbImp: converting enum without prefixes.

sergey_shandar — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:27:16 GMT

It would be good if tlbimp can remove useless enum prefixes. For exmample, this IDL code:

enum RGB
{
RGB_Red = 0,
RGB_Green = 1,
RGB_Blue = 2,
};

has to be converted to .NET enum as

enum RGB
{
Red = 0,
Green = 1,
Blue = 2,
};

The enumeration items in COM are global, in .NET they are local so the transformation would be logical. Also tlbexp converting .NET enum to COM enum with added prefixes.
Comments: ** Comment from web user: sergey_shandar **

I could commit the changes myself if I have access.

Commented Issue: 'Data4' section of GUID incorrectly generated as a string

jaredp110680 — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:15:10 GMT

Yes it should. The tool attempts to map a set of native types into the corresponding managed type. It looks like GUID slipped through in this case.

Commented Issue: 'Data4' section of GUID incorrectly generated as a string

sergey_shandar — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:07:58 GMT

Should be this whole structure converted to System.Guid?

New Post: How does this tool work?

shaggygi — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:00:55 GMT

New to me. How do these tools work? If I understood sessions from PDC 08, these tools will allow a wrapper to be created for C++ and/or ANSI C to C#/VB ( and vise versa )? If so, what do you do to create wrapper? Do you load a DLL compiled and created from C++ and/or ANSI C and will create a .NET class? Let's say I have a DLL developed in C++ that includes a few functions to interface/communicate with a vendor's module via serial port. If I run this tool, will it create a class including the same functions and data types ( enums, structs, etc. )?

Reviewed: PInvoke Interop Assistant (Nov 02, 2008)

shaggygi — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:54:48 GMT

Rated 4 Stars (out of 5) - Really neat stuff. This is new to me. I tried opening a few DLLs I believe were originally written in ANSI C (or C++). When opening, I received an error that mentions the Assembly Manifest was missing from file. What needs to be done to correct this. Thanks.

Commented Issue: TlbImp: converting enum without prefixes.

sergey_shandar — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:55:39 GMT

Proposed patch.

Created Issue: TlbImp: converting enum without prefixes.

sergey_shandar — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:26:30 GMT

Reviewed: Type Library Importer in Managed Code (Oct 27, 2008)

sergey_shandar — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:47:18 GMT

Rated 5 Stars (out of 5) - Thank you for fast bug fixing.

Reviewed: PInvoke Interop Assistant (Oct 27, 2008)

sergey_shandar — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:45:17 GMT

Rated 5 Stars (out of 5) - fast bug fixing.

Updated Release: Type Library Importer in Managed Code (Oct 14, 2008)

XiaoyingGuo — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:15:00 GMT

TLBIMP is a .NET SDK tool that creates an Interop assembly from a COM type library. This project is a managed code implementation of TLBIMP. We have released this tool so developers can see what TLBIMP does and if necessary extend the tool for their specific requirements.

This is the second Tlbimp release on CodePlex. It adds two command-line switches beyond the same functionality as the existing TLBIMP in .NET 3.5 SDK:

/v2: When this switch is on, the Tlbimp applies new rules when importing native types so as to get the output more as expected result. The new rule in this release is to convert VARIANT_BOOL in structures to bool instead of short.

/PreserveSig: If this swtich is applied, the Tlbimp doesn't apply [out, retval] parameter transformation but adds PreserveSigAttribute to the imported method.

To get the help for this tool, please type in "tlbimp /?" in the command line, or check MSDN document library for the features in .NET 3.5 SDK.

Released: Type Library Importer in Managed Code (Oct 14, 2008)

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:15:00 GMT

/v2: When this switch is on, the Tlbimp applies new rules when importing native types so as to get the output more as expected result. The new rule in this release is to convert VARIANT_BOOL in structures to bool instead of short.

/PreserveSig: If this swtich is applied, the Tlbimp doesn't apply [out, retval] parameter transformation but adds PreserveSigAttribute to the imported method.

To get the help for this tool, please type in "tlbimp /?" in the command line, or check MSDN document library for the features in .NET 3.5 SDK.

Source code checked in, #17108

EricFu — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:09:19 GMT

Remove unnecessary Resource.Designer.cs

Source code checked in, #17107

EricFu — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:06:42 GMT

/v2 support

Updated Release: Type Library Importer in Managed Code (Sep 25, 2008)

XiaoyingGuo — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:01:32 GMT

/v2: When this switch is on, the Tlbimp applies new rules when importing native types so as to get the output more as expected result. The new rule in this release is to convert VARIANT_BOOL in structures to bool instead of short.

/PreserveSig: If this swtich is applied, the Tlbimp doesn't apply [out, retval] parameter transformation but adds PreserveSigAttribute to the imported method.

To get the help for this tool, please type in "tlbimp /?" in the command line, or check MSDN document library for the features in .NET 3.5 SDK.

Created Issue: 'Data4' section of GUID incorrectly generated as a string

LeeHolmes — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:55:38 GMT

Updated Release: Type Library Importer in Managed Code (Sep 25, 2008)

XiaoyingGuo — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:03:02 GMT

TLBIMP is a .NET SDK tool that creates an Interop assembly from a COM type library. This project is a managed code implementation of TLBIMP. We have released this tool so developers can see what TLBIMP does and if necessary extend the tool for their specific requirements.

This initial release provides the same functionality as the existing TLBIMP in .NET 3.5 SDK. Future versions of this project will extend this tool.

To get the help for this tool, please type in "tlbimp /?" in the command line, or check MSDN document library.

Released: Type Library Importer in Managed Code (Sep 25, 2008)

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:03:02 GMT

TLBIMP is a .NET SDK tool that creates an Interop assembly from a COM type library. This project is a managed code implementation of TLBIMP. We have released this tool so developers can see what TLBIMP does and if necessary extend the tool for their specific requirements.

This initial release provides the same functionality as the existing TLBIMP in .NET 3.5 SDK. Future versions of this project will extend this tool.

To get the help for this tool, please type in "tlbimp /?" in the command line, or check MSDN document library.

Updated Wiki: Home

XiaoyingGuo — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:29:22 GMT

Introduction
Welcome to the CodePlex site for CLR Interop Team, where tools and samples designed by the team are released! We hope the things delivered here will help you make best use of Interop and boost development in your work. You are welcome to share your concerns, comments or feedback about Interop with us through this site.

Project Description: P/Invoke Interop Assistant
In marshalling, there are a bunch of attributes and rules. Understanding all those attributes and rules seem a bit daunting. In order to make developing work more efficient and easier on those attributes and the rules, P/Invoke Interop Assistant comes out. It is a toolkit that helps developers to efficiently convert from C to managed P/Invoke signatures or verse visa. This is conceptually similar to TlbImp for COM Interop which generates managed proxy entry points based on some formal description of the unmanaged side but it works for P/Invoke. The toolkit was first released on MSDN Magazine website in Jan, 2008.

Project Description: Type Library Importer in Managed Code
Yes, this is the Tlbimp you may be familiar with, which import a type library into interop assembly. Different from the one you may use in .NET Framework 3.5 (or before) SDK, the CodePlex release of Tlbimp is completely implemented in managed code, which is easier to explore and extend its features. The first release of Tlbimp in CodePlex obtains the same functionality of the one in SDK, while more appealing new features are planned to add into the following releases to make it more customizable for specific needs.