Use a .NET (v 4.0) DLL from AutoIt ?

[AngelsFlyHigh]

Hi!

New to using DLL's from AutoIt so hopefully this is a easy one to answer.

When you have a COM DLL all you need to to is using the DLLCall or DLLOpen to start using it. But in my case the developer says the DLL I'm want to use is a .NET DLL and it lacks the COM parts in it.

Some basic tries using DLLOpen always return @error = 4.

Anyone have any experience with these "new" kinds of DLL's? Can they be accesses from AutoIt at all? The developer says I probably need some Wrapper to access the DLL. Basically making it a COM DLL. Anyone who have some insights to create/download a Wrapper that can use a .NET v4.0 DLL?

Kind Regards,

Thomas

[JohnOne]

Name of dll?

[AngelsFlyHigh]

Its a custom built DLL called "ServiceProvider.DLL" that creates a connection to a database.This DLL is used to fetch data about companies here in Denmark.

[dragan]

If you want to make it COM accessible, then >look here.

If you want to make a standard DLL, then continue reading:

Have you ever heard of a "Unmanaged Exports" library for .NET?
Add it to your .NET project, and form the function something like:

class Class1
{
    [DllExport("add", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public int AddNumbers(int a, int b)
    {
        return a + b;
    }

    [DllExport("sub", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public int SubtractNumbers(int a, int b)
    {
        return a - b;
    }

    [DllExport("multistring", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public string MultiString(string str1, string spc = ",", int b = 1)
    {
        if (str1.Length < 1 || b < 1) return "";

        string retVal = "";

        for (int i = 1; i <= b; i++)
        {
            retVal += str1 + spc;
        }

        if (spc.Length <= 0)
             return retVal;
        else
            return retVal.Remove(retVal.Length - spc.Length, spc.Length);
    }
}

And you would have to add references:

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using RGiesecke.DllExport;

And then compile as DLL for x86 OR x64 platform (If you leave the "Any CPU" platform, the functions will not be exported), and use it from your autoit as:

$myDLL = @ScriptDir & '\myNETdll.dll'
if NOT FileExists($myDLL) Then Exit

$dllCall1 = DllCall($myDLL, 'int', 'add', 'int', 5, 'int', 7)
if @error Then
    MsgBox(0, 'Error', 'Error code: ' & @error)
Else
    MsgBox(0, 'ADD Result', $dllCall1[0])
EndIf

$dllCall2 = DllCall($myDLL, 'int', 'sub', 'int', 20, 'int', 14)
if @error Then
    MsgBox(0, 'Error', 'Error code: ' & @error)
Else
    MsgBox(0, 'SUB Result', $dllCall2[0])
EndIf

$dllCall3 = DllCall($myDLL, 'str', 'multistring', 'str', 'SOME_TEXT', 'str', ',', 'int', 3)
if @error Then
    MsgBox(0, 'Error', 'Error code: ' & @error)
Else
    MsgBox(0, 'MULTISTRING Result', $dllCall3[0])
EndIf

p.s. none of the examples were tested, but it should work as I've done this before.

Edited September 23, 2013 by dragan