C#, CF, How can I access a Win CE3.0 ActiveX control

[Neville Lang]

Hi all,

I have a third party ActiveX control, with the documented exported
functions, written for Win CE 3.0, I guess using eVC. My question is what is
the best strategy for accessing some of its functions from within C#?

After reviewing some past posts via Google, I understand that CF does not
support ActiveX controls. I did notice a paper that mentioned using P/Invoke
to access an ActiveX control via a eVC DLL wrapper. Since I have some
knowledge of eVC but not very much on ActiveX controls, I am really asking
for a starting point in creating the DLL wrapper so that I can call it from
P/Invoke, which I have some knowledge of also.

Earlier this year, I used P/Invoke quite a bit to call functions in a third
party DLL library. What I am not sure here is the ActiveX control as I have
never had to interface with one before.

Regards,
Neville Lang

 

[Chris Tacke, eMVP]

You need to create a DLL that calls the COM interfaces and returns usable
pointers through a P/Invoke supported interface. Take a look at the POOM
wrapper sample at gotdotnet.

-Chris

 

[Neville Lang]

Chris,

Thank you for the tip. I had a look at GoDotNet, did a search on POOM and
nothing showed up. I then did a search on Pocket Outlook and, although there
were some entries, I could not find the sample you referred to. Do you have
a specific link I could follow?

Regards,
Neville Lang

 

[Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]]

There's also a component from Odyssey Software which allows .NET CF
applications to use ActiveX controls directly, CFCom, I think it's called.
If you have a complicated control to wrap, I'm sure it's cheaper to go that
way.

Paul T.

 

[Neville Lang]

Paul,

Thank you for that advice but since I want to do a public roll-out of my
app, their licence fees are prohibitive.

I am simply looking for a paper or information on how I might be able to
build a wrapper in eVC to interact with an ActiveX control written for WinCE
3.0 so that I can use P/Invoke from C# CF.

At this stage, I have very limited knowledge of ActiveX components but some
knowledge of eVC and much better knowledge, over the last months, on C# for
CF.

Regards,
Neville Lang

 

[Neville Lang]

Chris,

I should have done a wider search of Google. I have found some more
information on POOM. Thank you again for the tip.

Regards,
Neville Lang