create components like activeX dlls in vb.net?

[Rich]

When I open up visual studio I don't see a selecion for
creating dlls or activeX apps, OCXs, etc. I apologize in
advance for my ignorance on this. But does vb.net support
any versions of stuff like this like VB6? For example, I
have created several ActiveX dlls in VB6 for passing
arguments between procedures contained in an Access mdb
and Excel apps. Also made bunch of ocx's, and lots of
ActiveX apps that can talk to each other. I'm sure that a
vb.net app could outfunction a com ActiveX app (can't it? -
I don't mean like for mobile technology - just local).
But may I ask how you go about creating an ocx or dll (or
whatever they call it in .net)?

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

When I open up visual studio I don't see a selecion for
creating dlls or activeX apps, OCXs, etc. I apologize in

You cannot create ActiveX GUI components (OCX).

You can make DLLs usable in COM environments, sample:

<http://dotnet.mvps.org/dotnet/samples/codingtechnique/downloads/MyComLib.zip>

 

[Rich]

Thanks (Danke) for that example (Ich vergessen alles mein
Deutch - zie sind swei Deutch person helfen ich). I
went ahead and built the solution for the vb.net dll and
then ran in in the VB6 IDE. The example worked very
nicely.

My real question is actually if I could create a vb.net
application for interfacing between Sql Server and an
Access mdb. I have been using com ADO right now which
works fine. But here is my situation: I use the
OpenRowset Method to read data from an Excel file to Sql
Server, invoke a stored procedure in read the results into
this Access front end app. No problem except that when I
read the results from the sp I have to use a recordset to
loop through the sp to write the records to the Access
local table. I was hoping I could create some kind of
simple vb.net app that I could pass arguments to from
Access to manipulate sql server and then use the ADO.net
functionality of vb.net to return datasets without having
to do looping in Access. Is this possible?

In VB6 I could create an ActiveX application that I could
talk to from Acces very easily. Can I do this in vb.net
so that I could use ADO.net in the Access mdb?

Thanks again,
Rich

 

[Rich]

OK. I think I get it. The dll from the solution IS the
equivalent of the ActiveX app. So you talk to it through
the User defined Class.

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

OK. I think I get it. The dll from the solution IS the
equivalent of the ActiveX app. So you talk to it through
the User defined Class.

Right. The DLL is registiered for COM interop (a type library is
created automatically by VS.NET), and some classes and members are made
visible to COM.