C# in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Exposing C# Objects to COM

Just as an RCW proxy wraps a COM object when you access it from C#, code that accesses a C# object as a COM object must do so through a proxy as well. When your C# object is marshaled out to COM, the runtime creates a COM Callable Wrapper (CCW). The CCW follows the same lifetime rules as other COM objects, and as long as it is alive, a CCW maintains a traceable reference to the object it wraps. This keeps the object alive when the garbage collector is run.

The following example shows how you can export both a class and an interface from C# and control the Global Unique Identifiers (GUIDs) and Dispatch IDs (DISPIDs) assigned. After compiling IRunInfo and StackSnapshot, you can register both using RegAsm.exe.

// IRunInfo.cs
// Compile with:
//   csc /t:library IRunInfo.cs
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
[GuidAttribute("aa6b10a2-dc4f-4a24-ae5e-90362c2142c1")]
public interface IRunInfo {
  [DispId(1)]
  string GetRunInfo( );
}
 
// StackSnapshot.cs
//   compile with csc /t:library /r:IRunInfo.dll StackSnapShot.cs
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Diagnostics;
[GuidAttribute("b72ccf55-88cc-4657-8577-72bd0ff767bc")]
public class StackSnapshot : IRunInfo {
  public StackSnapshot( ) {
    st = new StackTrace( );
  }
  [DispId(1)]
  public string GetRunInfo( ) {
    return st.ToString( );
  }
  private StackTrace st;
}