If i understand you correctly the scenario is :
The app that you developed is running constantly on a system other programs
written by third parties must have the ability to comunicate with this one
running instance .
Well in this case a inmediate COM interface wil not solve the problem as COM
creates a new instance in the past ( VB6 ) you could create ACTIVEX
executables with VB6 in apartment threaded state so 1 instance could server
many clients since .Net this is not possible annymore with COM , every .Net
COM instance is actually a new instance of your component .
What can you do to solve this :
You could make your app a service and control it with the service
controler or through a database
You could create your app as a singletong remoting object hosted in a
remoting server
You could use WCF ( requires framework 3.0 )
Ofcourse for all options you could write a COM dll that acts as a wrapper to
the actuall interface , this for legacy clients
This sort of application is also called a "distributed application"
HTH
regards
Michel
"Bruce W. Roeser" <br*****@cfl.rr.comschreef in bericht
news:ur**************@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
CJ,
The term that describes what you're trying to do is called "COM Interop".
Dot-Net code can call into ActiveX DLL's using the Com Interop feature.
At our company we have made extensive use of this ability as we migrate
our application forward a piece at a time.
-bwr-
"cj" <cj@nospam.nospamwrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>I've often used methods exposed by software purchased for other uses to
automate tasks. For instance back in the late 90's I found the terminal
emulation package the company exposed methods that allowed me to write a
VB program that could use that terminal emulation package to connect to,
read, and enter data on the company's mainframes. I think this was called
OLE?
Well now I'm on the other end of the picture and I need to write into a
.net program the ability to allow Microsot MOM or System Center Manager
(whatever it's called now) to check the value of a few variables. Ideally
this would be done in such a way that any other software could call a
method of my app and get the value of a variable. I'm not sure OLE will
work because unlike the terminal emulation software which was started up
by the VB program, in this case my .net program is constantly running and
working independently it just needs to be probed for status info.
Can someone tell me the buzz word for what I need to do so I can find
some info on how do do it? BTW my application is a Windows App, NOT ASPX
so a web service is NOT what I'm looking for.
If all else fails I'll just keep some environment variables set and
updated that MOM can look at.
Thanks!