COM Interop
Encyclopedia
COM Interop is a technology included in the .NET
CLR
that enables COM
objects to interact with .NET objects, and vice versa.
COM Interop aims to provide access to the existing COM components without requiring that the original component be modified. It tries to make the .NET types equivalent to the COM types. In addition, COM Interop allows COM developers to access managed objects as easily as they access other COM objects.
The .NET Framework
creates a type library and special registry entries when a component is registered. It provides a specialized utility (RegAsm.exe , usually located in C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework) that exports the managed types into a type library and registers the managed component as a traditional COM component. When the type is instantiated through COM, the .NET CLR
is the actual COM object that executes and it merely marshals any method calls or property access to the type implementation.
A COM Interop for an existing COM component can be created through the use of the Tlbimp.exe tool supplied with the .NET Framework SDK. This tool will create a set of proxy classes implemented in CIL
which is encapsulated in an Assembly
.
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
CLR
Common Language Runtime
The Common Language Runtime is the virtual machine component of Microsoft's .NET framework and is responsible for managing the execution of .NET programs. In a process known as just-in-time compilation, the CLR compiles the intermediate language code known as CIL into the machine instructions...
that enables COM
Component Object Model
Component Object Model is a binary-interface standard for software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993. It is used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in a large range of programming languages...
objects to interact with .NET objects, and vice versa.
COM Interop aims to provide access to the existing COM components without requiring that the original component be modified. It tries to make the .NET types equivalent to the COM types. In addition, COM Interop allows COM developers to access managed objects as easily as they access other COM objects.
The .NET Framework
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
creates a type library and special registry entries when a component is registered. It provides a specialized utility (RegAsm.exe , usually located in C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework) that exports the managed types into a type library and registers the managed component as a traditional COM component. When the type is instantiated through COM, the .NET CLR
Common Language Runtime
The Common Language Runtime is the virtual machine component of Microsoft's .NET framework and is responsible for managing the execution of .NET programs. In a process known as just-in-time compilation, the CLR compiles the intermediate language code known as CIL into the machine instructions...
is the actual COM object that executes and it merely marshals any method calls or property access to the type implementation.
A COM Interop for an existing COM component can be created through the use of the Tlbimp.exe tool supplied with the .NET Framework SDK. This tool will create a set of proxy classes implemented in CIL
Common Intermediate Language
Common Intermediate Language is the lowest-level human-readable programming language defined by the Common Language Infrastructure specification and is used by the .NET Framework and Mono...
which is encapsulated in an Assembly
.NET assembly
In the .NET framework, an assembly is a compiled code library used for deployment, versioning, and security. There are two types: process assemblies and library assemblies . A process assembly represents a process that will use classes defined in library assemblies...
.