views:

337

answers:

2

I am attempting to create a new COM object in my DLL using the ATL Simple Object Wizard in Visual Studio 2005.

I enter the short name for the object, and all of the other fields are derived.

However, when I click Next in the wizard, the following error message comes up:

Object 'IXxxInterfaceName' already exists

I have searched my entire solution for all references to IXxxInterfaceName and can't see it defined anywhere.

How is the wizard determining that it exists already?

+1  A: 

Is it defined in a library you are referencing?

Mitch Wheat
It could be. Can you think of an easy way I could figure this out without having to resort to brute force for every library I am referencing?
LeopardSkinPillBoxHat
Actually now that I think about it, it's not very likely that it would be used in a library I am referencing. The interface name has a standard prefix used by all of the interfaces in our product. So I doubt any 3rd-party libraries would use the same name.
LeopardSkinPillBoxHat
true. it's a weird one. what happens if you chnage the name slightly?
Mitch Wheat
Well, I appended a 2 to the end of the interface name and it worked. Then I replaced all the occurrences of IXxxInterfaceName2 with IXxxInterfaceName. Seems to compile, although I'm still getting problems trying to invoke API methods across COM. Hopefully I'll figure them out today.
LeopardSkinPillBoxHat
A: 

I never found out why the wizard determined that the object name existed already - I'm guessing something was cached somewhere that I couldn't track down.

In the end, I appended a 2 to the end of the interface name when creating it which allowed it to be added. Then I replaced all the occurrences of IXxxInterfaceName2 with IXxxInterfaceName. Everything worked after this.

If I ever track down the root cause of this problem, I'll update the answer.

LeopardSkinPillBoxHat