how to create a com dll using visual studio 2008.

Question

how to create a com dll using visual studio 2008.what are the custome settings needed for creating dll. that dll should be used in microsoft navision(ERP PACKAGE).

Answer 1

Simply create a class library. In the project properties, open the dialog where you can change assembly information and mark the "Make assembly COM-visible" checkbox (sorry, don't know the exact name of the option, using German VS 2008).

Then, add the following attributes to any class that should be used from Navision:

[ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.AutoDual)]
[ProgId("YOUR-ID-GOES-HERE")]
[ComVisible(true)]
[Guid("xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx")]
public class ComVisbleClass
{
    ....
}

I suggest that you also manually assign Disp-IDs to the public methods and properties using the DispId attribute. Otherwise, inserting new public methods or properties may break Navision functionality, as the Disp-IDs may be changed upon compilation.

Navision would then refer to the old Disp-IDs which may now "point" to different methods. This is a PITA to debug and solve, so use the DispId attribute from the start.