Hi,
I have a 3rd party component, lets say FIPreviewHandler to handle preview, which implements IPreviewHandler. FIPreviewHandler is implemented as a Managed Component, and uses the IPreviewHandler interface and related interfaces through means of an interop. FIPreviewHandler is registered using regasm.exe as COM.
I have a client application which is also Managed. I want to create an instance of FIPreviewHandler as a COM component in my application.
I have an interop assembly that defines IPreviewHandler and related interfaces.
When I create an instance of FIPreviewHandler, using Activator.CreateInstance(), on a type returned by GetTypeByCLSID(), which uses the correct CLSID for FIPreviewHandler, it returns me a managed instance, as it has the actual assembly available, and skips COM. When I try to QI/cast this instance as any of the interfaces, IPreviewHandler for example, it returns null because, it is loaded as a managed object, and although the IPreviewHandler interface implemented by FIPreviewHandler is the same interface as I have in my interop, but its in a difference namespace/assembly, hence null. If it were to return me a COM instance/RCW (System.__ComObject), it would not take namespace into account, and would cast fine, and return a valid instance.
FIPreviewHandler is a 32 bit component, and on a 64bit Win7 machine, if I compile my client application as "Any CPU", Activator.CreateInstance() returns a COM instance/RCW (System.__ComObject), as it cudnt find a 64bit implementation of FIPreviewHandler, hence returns a proxy. In this scenario, my application works fine. But when I compile it for x86, it gets the 32bit implementation, and returns a managed instance of the actual managed class, and not a COM instance, hence fails.
I cannot use the interfaces defined in FIPreviewHandler's assembly, as I have to write a generic client for IPreviewHandler, and my application will work with any component implementing IPreviewHandler, which would work great for C++ based clients accessing FIPreviewHandler as a COM object, but is failing for Managed clients.
I hope I make sense and I would be really grateful for any help.