Hi there!!

Can i access DLLs writen in vb6 in .NET environment ?
Are ther some issues involved ?

I am planning an Intranet (using ASP .NET) and want to use
DLL writen in Visual Foxpro 6.0 and Visual Basic 6.0

Regards
Devrishi

Yes you could use them. You might have to use an interop for them to run. An interop allows unmanaged code (vb6) to run with managed code (asp.net vb.net)

I would convert them from vb6 to VB.net and then use them in your application

Though conversion is the best, you can use them as fantom222 stated. You will HAVE to use an interop assembly. An interop assembly is a wrapper around the COM object. All you need to do is add a new reference to your project, choose the COM tab, then find your registered COM object. VS will automatically run the tlbimp.exe program that's in the SDK directory to create the interop DLL which will live in the bin directory of your project. You will see a dll with a name matching your COM object (possibly proceeded by "Interop."). This DLL will be much smaller than the original COM DLL as it's only the wrapper for it. Remember that if you update any of the interfaces in the COM object you'll need to replace the reference inside of your .Net project so the interop can be regenerated for the updated COM. Once you have the reference in there you can just instantiate the objects in .Net the same way as any other .Net assembly (not by using the COM class ID).

I have spoken with some microsoft people while I was troubleshooting a COM interop problem and they told me something interesting about using COM classes in .Net. When you use a COM class you should dimension it and instantiate it like this (let's say our COM object is "ABC" and it has one class, "xyz"):

Dim objXYZ As ABC.xyz
objXYZ = New ABX.xyxClass

Apparently when tlbimp creates the interop, it creates the class wrapper (xyzClass) AND a class interface (xyz). MS says to dim it as the interface type, but to instantiate it as the class type. I started another thread in this forum regarding this.

Peter

thanx to both of you.
but
booohh!!!
as you said i have to recompile them....but what if my DLLs
are developed in Visual Foxpro 7.0

please help
Regards
Sunny

That shouldn't matter, though I have not used Foxpro so I can't be sure. If you are creating a COM DLL, regardless of the development tool, you should have to go thru the same process of registering the DLL and adding them into (or updating them) in a VS.Net project.

Peter