Custom Controls with DLLImports in VS 2005

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I am trying to port some existing CF custom controls to VS 2005. I have read
the article "Creating Custom Controls for MS .NET CF in VS 2005" which was
helpful, but it does not deal with DLLImports. I have created the .xmta file
to deal with the design attributes that are required and have installed the
control into the toolbox, but still have errors when I drag-n-drop the
control onto a form. It complains about the DLLImports and then crashes VS. I
have searched this Newsgroup but no joy. Does anyone know how to deal with
this issue? Is there an attribute that needs to be added to handle this or do
you have to code around each and every reference to the DLLImport functions?
Any help will be appreciated.
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Re: Custom Controls with DLLImports in VS 2005 by Peter

Peter
Tue Aug 23 10:15:40 CDT 2005

You can alter your code so that the P/Invokes are only called on the device.
e.g. using

if(System.Environment.OSVersion.Platform==PlatformID.WindowsCE)
{
//do device specific stuff
}

to exclude the calls from the desktop, or you could use an alternative e.g.
desktop p/invoke. You can simplify this slightly by using a static boolean
which is set once on initialisation e.g.
private static bool isDevice =
(System.Environment.OSVersion.Platform==PlatformID.WindowsCE);

If the P/Invokes occur during property setter/getters you can disable these
from appearing in the designer, if they are called within OnPaint,
OnParentChanged etc you'll need to wrap them as shown above.

Peter

--
Peter Foot
Windows Embedded MVP
http://www.inthehand.com | http://www.peterfoot.net

"DanielF" <DanielF@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:72B96282-4911-4AA1-B9C5-03991BD3A151@microsoft.com...
>I am trying to port some existing CF custom controls to VS 2005. I have
>read
> the article "Creating Custom Controls for MS .NET CF in VS 2005" which was
> helpful, but it does not deal with DLLImports. I have created the .xmta
> file
> to deal with the design attributes that are required and have installed
> the
> control into the toolbox, but still have errors when I drag-n-drop the
> control onto a form. It complains about the DLLImports and then crashes
> VS. I
> have searched this Newsgroup but no joy. Does anyone know how to deal with
> this issue? Is there an attribute that needs to be added to handle this or
> do
> you have to code around each and every reference to the DLLImport
> functions?
> Any help will be appreciated.


Top

Re: Custom Controls with DLLImports in VS 2005 by Keith

Keith
Tue Aug 23 13:26:13 CDT 2005

In your DesignTimeAttributes.xmta file, add
<DesktopCompatible>true</DesktopCompatible> to the control class. You also
have to assure that your imports don't run while in the designer.

Keith Welch
Mooseworks Software

"DanielF" <DanielF@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:72B96282-4911-4AA1-B9C5-03991BD3A151@microsoft.com...
>I am trying to port some existing CF custom controls to VS 2005. I have
>read
> the article "Creating Custom Controls for MS .NET CF in VS 2005" which was
> helpful, but it does not deal with DLLImports. I have created the .xmta
> file
> to deal with the design attributes that are required and have installed
> the
> control into the toolbox, but still have errors when I drag-n-drop the
> control onto a form. It complains about the DLLImports and then crashes
> VS. I
> have searched this Newsgroup but no joy. Does anyone know how to deal with
> this issue? Is there an attribute that needs to be added to handle this or
> do
> you have to code around each and every reference to the DLLImport
> functions?
> Any help will be appreciated.


Top

Re: Custom Controls with DLLImports in VS 2005 by DanielF

DanielF
Wed Aug 24 14:09:01 CDT 2005

Thank you for your quick response. I was not able to find this documented
anywhere. I have it working now thanks to your help. It turned out to be not
quite as difficult as I thought - I was concerned that I would have to put
conditional logic everywhere that references the DLLImports which is hundreds
of places, but now I realize that it is only for the ones that might get
executed during Design phase.
Thanks again!

"Peter Foot [MVP]" wrote:

> You can alter your code so that the P/Invokes are only called on the device.
> e.g. using
>
> if(System.Environment.OSVersion.Platform==PlatformID.WindowsCE)
> {
> //do device specific stuff
> }
>
> to exclude the calls from the desktop, or you could use an alternative e.g.
> desktop p/invoke. You can simplify this slightly by using a static boolean
> which is set once on initialisation e.g.
> private static bool isDevice =
> (System.Environment.OSVersion.Platform==PlatformID.WindowsCE);
>
> If the P/Invokes occur during property setter/getters you can disable these
> from appearing in the designer, if they are called within OnPaint,
> OnParentChanged etc you'll need to wrap them as shown above.
>
> Peter
>
> --
> Peter Foot
> Windows Embedded MVP
> http://www.inthehand.com | http://www.peterfoot.net
>
> "DanielF" <DanielF@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:72B96282-4911-4AA1-B9C5-03991BD3A151@microsoft.com...
> >I am trying to port some existing CF custom controls to VS 2005. I have
> >read
> > the article "Creating Custom Controls for MS .NET CF in VS 2005" which was
> > helpful, but it does not deal with DLLImports. I have created the .xmta
> > file
> > to deal with the design attributes that are required and have installed
> > the
> > control into the toolbox, but still have errors when I drag-n-drop the
> > control onto a form. It complains about the DLLImports and then crashes
> > VS. I
> > have searched this Newsgroup but no joy. Does anyone know how to deal with
> > this issue? Is there an attribute that needs to be added to handle this or
> > do
> > you have to code around each and every reference to the DLLImport
> > functions?
> > Any help will be appreciated.
>
>
>
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