Control licensing issues when accessing from COM

[Guest]

Hi, we have a Windows Forms control which uses the standard .NET licensing
mechanism (registry holds license key at design time, and key is embedded in
executable for run-time). This works fine enough when building regular
forms, and does even work with IE hosting.

The problem is, we have a user that wants to use our control in a powerpoint
add-in, which means they want to access our control from their COM.
Functionally it works fine, but the issue is with the licensing mechanism;
Since they don't create a final exe (because it's an add-in), only a DLL,
there's no where for the .licenses file to be embedded.

Is there a way to use the standard .NET licensing mechanism with COM users?
My first guess would be no, but the IE hosting method works well with that,
so I'm hopeful.

Any info/suggestions appreciated, thanks.

Jim

 

[Jeffrey Tan[MSFT]]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your post.

Can you show us some details about how you uses the Winform controls in the
PPT add-in? How you show out the control UI in the add-in?

Actually, the official supported containers for .Net control are:
Windows Forms, Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) 7.x, and Internet
Explorer 5.01 and later versions

For details, please refer to:
"ActiveX control containers that support .NET controls"
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;311334

Best regards,
Jeffrey Tan
Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Jeffrey, unfortunately the user doesn't want to divulge the
information you requested... so we will have to look for another work-around.

Actually, the official supported containers for .Net control are:
Windows Forms, Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) 7.x, and Internet
Explorer 5.01 and later versions

I didn't realise this was the state of play - unfortunately though, telling
a customer that what they're doing is unsupported just enrages them...


Jim

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your post.

Can you show us some details about how you uses the Winform controls in the
PPT add-in? How you show out the control UI in the add-in?

Actually, the official supported containers for .Net control are:
Windows Forms, Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) 7.x, and Internet
Explorer 5.01 and later versions

For details, please refer to:
"ActiveX control containers that support .NET controls"
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;311334

Best regards,
Jeffrey Tan
Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

 

[Jeffrey Tan[MSFT]]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your feedback.

Sorry, currently, I am still not sure if your scenario is supported. So I
need your implement details. Without the implement details, I can not
understand you very well and give any useful suggestion.

If your application needs to be kept secret, I suggest you contact
Microsoft PSS for confirmation. Thanks

Best regards,
Jeffrey Tan
Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

 

[Guest]

That's OK, you've answered my question as best you could. My customer
doesn't want to divulge how they've done it - so I've implemented a
workaround (that doesn't use the .NET licensing mechanism).

I guess it's just a shame that the 'supported containers' list is tucked
away with no mention in the standard docs. But, interop'ing COM and .NET was
pretty ambitious anyway and I don't blame MS for problems arising from it
after release...

Jim

 

[Jeffrey Tan[MSFT]]

Hi Jim,

Yes, thanks for your understanding.

Later on, I think you may get more useful help for interop related issue in
dotnet.framework.interop newsgroup. Also, my interop speciality colleague
will monitor your issue there.

Anyway, if you need any further winform related issue, please feel free to
post here. Thanks

Best regards,
Jeffrey Tan
Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.