Using XML with Legacy Business Applications

#import and Smart Pointers

These two lines are included in all our C++ routines that use any of the DOM interfaces:

#import <msxml4.dll>
using namespace MSXML2;

This is a Visual C++ compiler directive that tells the compiler we're going to use MSXML. It must be written exactly as shown, on two lines.

The #import directive does more just than fulfill the general purpose of including information from a type library (similar to the way the #include directive brings in header files): It also creates so-called “smart pointer” interfaces for the COM interfaces defined in the type library being imported. Smart pointers are native C++ class wrappers that hide a lot of the messy details of creating and managing COM objects. One of the nicest things ...