Hello,
I am desperately trying to get my vb .NET .dll to work registration-free with my vb6 progam. I tried to create a manifest by several different methods (Make my Manifest, UMMM, Side by Side Manifest Creator, mt.exe and by hand), but none worked. If all of these methods fail, I must obviously be doing something wrong, but I can't for the life of me figure out what is going wrong.
I tried asking in other forums and specifically asked if the steps I was taking were even right, as there were some parts I was unsure about and couldn't find any source with a definite answer. Sadly it seems that everybody ignores these questions and skips right to the error message or when you don't quote an error message they just tell you they can't help until you provide an error message.
Because I am so uncertain about many steps, I wanted to make an extra thread specifically about whether the steps I have taken are correct. So for the love of God please don't lock this thread because I am not posting the error messages (has already happened on another forum). I know it is a lot, but as I am trying to single out unexpected errors from me simply misunderstanding the concept, any answer to any of those questions would already be a great step forward. Right now there are just too many variables to consider for me to go on. I assume my problem is with the manifest creation, so if I have done everything right until then, please let me know.
Those are the steps I took in .NET:
- Create new project: New Class Library
- Make it com visible and register for interop services
- Write a simple hello world class (It works when I used it on my own PC, so no errors here)
- Compile
Is this everything I need to do one the VB .NET side YES/NO?????
In vb6
- Create new project and add reference to the .dll
The .dll/.tbl is already listed when I click on add reference in vb6. Should I add the .dll/.tbl listed there while it is still in the VB .NET project directory or copy it to the vb6 project directory and add the .dll manually from there????? Or should I copy the .tbl to the vb6 project folder and then add it?????
- Compile
Then there is the manifest creation. There are a lot of things unclear here:
- Do I need to create a manifest for the vb6 .exe and that is it? I saw some people create manifests for individual .dlls. So is one manifest for the .exe enough YES/NO?????
- I only use one .dll, but I saw some posts while googleing that suggested you might need to add other .dlls for the .NET .dll to work, like mscorelib or mscoree. Also, when I start vb6 in compatibility mode I generates stdole2.tlb in the project folder. Do I need mscorelib, mscoree or any other addition .dlls YES/NO?????. Do I need to include stdole2.tlb in the manifest YES/NO??????
- I tried using Make My Manifest on my vb6 project, but it just created an almost empty manifest with no reference to the .dll. Does that mean I made a mistake? Or is this maybe a known issue YES/NO?????
- Is there any easy step by step guide for creating a manifest??? I have seen some help online with info on the parameters for a manifest, but since I want to excluded an error on my part, I would like to compare it to a guide that is as fool-proof as possible.
Thanks in advance for your help.
I am desperately trying to get my vb .NET .dll to work registration-free with my vb6 progam. I tried to create a manifest by several different methods (Make my Manifest, UMMM, Side by Side Manifest Creator, mt.exe and by hand), but none worked. If all of these methods fail, I must obviously be doing something wrong, but I can't for the life of me figure out what is going wrong.
I tried asking in other forums and specifically asked if the steps I was taking were even right, as there were some parts I was unsure about and couldn't find any source with a definite answer. Sadly it seems that everybody ignores these questions and skips right to the error message or when you don't quote an error message they just tell you they can't help until you provide an error message.
Because I am so uncertain about many steps, I wanted to make an extra thread specifically about whether the steps I have taken are correct. So for the love of God please don't lock this thread because I am not posting the error messages (has already happened on another forum). I know it is a lot, but as I am trying to single out unexpected errors from me simply misunderstanding the concept, any answer to any of those questions would already be a great step forward. Right now there are just too many variables to consider for me to go on. I assume my problem is with the manifest creation, so if I have done everything right until then, please let me know.
Those are the steps I took in .NET:
- Create new project: New Class Library
- Make it com visible and register for interop services
- Write a simple hello world class (It works when I used it on my own PC, so no errors here)
- Compile
Is this everything I need to do one the VB .NET side YES/NO?????
In vb6
- Create new project and add reference to the .dll
The .dll/.tbl is already listed when I click on add reference in vb6. Should I add the .dll/.tbl listed there while it is still in the VB .NET project directory or copy it to the vb6 project directory and add the .dll manually from there????? Or should I copy the .tbl to the vb6 project folder and then add it?????
- Compile
Then there is the manifest creation. There are a lot of things unclear here:
- Do I need to create a manifest for the vb6 .exe and that is it? I saw some people create manifests for individual .dlls. So is one manifest for the .exe enough YES/NO?????
- I only use one .dll, but I saw some posts while googleing that suggested you might need to add other .dlls for the .NET .dll to work, like mscorelib or mscoree. Also, when I start vb6 in compatibility mode I generates stdole2.tlb in the project folder. Do I need mscorelib, mscoree or any other addition .dlls YES/NO?????. Do I need to include stdole2.tlb in the manifest YES/NO??????
- I tried using Make My Manifest on my vb6 project, but it just created an almost empty manifest with no reference to the .dll. Does that mean I made a mistake? Or is this maybe a known issue YES/NO?????
- Is there any easy step by step guide for creating a manifest??? I have seen some help online with info on the parameters for a manifest, but since I want to excluded an error on my part, I would like to compare it to a guide that is as fool-proof as possible.
Thanks in advance for your help.