Professional ASP.NET MVC 1.0 (Wrox Programmer to Programmer)

No matter how much you'd like to do all your coding in .NET, you have to face reality. There is an enormous amount of traditional ASP and COM code being used, and businesses cannot afford to just throw that away. The success of MTS/COM+ Services as a middle- tier business object layer has led to a large number of COM objects being used as data layers , abstracting the data management code from the ASP code. With .NET, Microsoft has provided good interoperability for several reasons:

• To preserve existing investment :Compatibility with existing applications means you can continue to use existing code, as well as preserve your existing investment.

• Incremental migration :There is no need to migrate everything at once if your new code can exist alongside other applications.

• Some code will never change :There is probably plenty of code where the investment, time, or skill to migrate is not available.

Although .NET is independent from COM, Microsoft realized the need for interoperability, and provided ways to use COM objects from within .NET, and also .NET components from within COM. They've realized that there had to be a way to call down to the Windows API, for those that need to.

This chapter gives an introduction into the interoperability issues. For a detailed look consult the book Professional Visual Basic Interoperability - COM and VB6 to .NET , ISBN 1 -861005 -65 -2, by Apress.

Crossing the Boundary

You know that .NET code is managed by the CLR, and that COM code is not, so there has to be some way to cross the managed/unmanaged code boundary. This is one of the major problems is the conversion of data types, but the CLR handles this for us, as shown in Figure 23 -1:

Figure 23-1:

When crossing this boundary you have to think about the differences between the two systems. Architecturally, these are:

Additionally, the programming differences are as follows :

The unmanaged way of doing things doesn't affect ASP or ASP.NET, but does affect those of you who also write COM and use components.

Data Type Marshalling

When you cross the managed/unmanaged boundary, the wrappers automatically perform data type mapping for you. So, although you don't need to know how this works, it's useful to see what language types map to in .NET. There are two kinds of data types as far as marshalling goes:

• Blittable types :These are the same on both sides of the boundary, and therefore don't need any conversion.

• Non-Blittable types :These are different on either side of the boundary, and therefore require conversion.

The following table details the pre-.NET data types, and what they map into in .NET:

Simple arrays (single dimensional arrays of blittable types) are themselves defined as blittable types.

Custom Type Marshalling

For blittable types, the marshaller always knows both the managed and unmanaged type, but this isn't so for non-blittable types (such as strings or multi-dimensional arrays). By default the following conversion takes place:

For non-blittable types, you can specify how they are marshalled across the boundary. This is really beyond the scope of this book, but is well detailed in the .NET SDK help file, under Programming with the .NET Framework, Interoperating with Unmanaged Code, and Data Marshalling.

HRESULTS

In Windows, the standard method of handling errors is via the use of HRESULTS . When crossing the boundary to .NET these are automatically converted to exception s, with the HRESULT details being stored as part of the exception object . This means you can use COM objects without sacrificing the structured exception handling in .NET. For this to work the COM object must support the ISupportErrorInfo and IErrorInfo interfaces.

Using COM Objects from .NET

Using COM components from .NET is extremely simple, as there is a tool that takes a COM component or type library and creates a managed assembly (a callable wrapper) to manage the boundary transition for you. Figure 23-2 shows how this wrapper is used:

Figure 23-2:

From the programming perspective all you have to do is call methods and access properties as you would with the COM component. The difference is that you'll be calling the wrapper class, which will take the .NET types, convert them to COM types, and call the COM interface methods. The CLR maintains the reference to the COM object, so COM reference counting works as expected, while also providing the simplicity of garbage collected references for the .NET usage of the object.

There are several ways in which you can generate the wrapper class:

• Adding a reference in Visual Studio .NET

• Using the type library import tool

• Using the type library convert class

• Creating a custom wrapper

Of these, the first two are by far the easiest .

Using Visual Studio .NET

In Visual Studio .NET all you have to do is create a reference to the COM object, and the wrapper class is created for you. First, select References from the Solution Explorer, and then pick Add Reference , as shown in Figure 23-3:

Figure 23-3:

Then, from the dialog that appears, select the COM tab, and pick your COM object, as shown in Figure 23-4:

Figure 23-4:

Once you've clicked Select and then OK, the reference is added. The wrapper class (in this case it would be ADODB.dll ) is placed in the bin directory of the application.

The Type Library Import Tool

If you don't have Visual Studio .NET (or are a die-hard Notepad user ) then you can use the type library import tool to create the wrapper class for you. The syntax is:

tlbimp TypeLibrary [ Options ]

where Options can be:

By default the output name will be the same as the COM type library, not the filename. For example:

tlbimp msado15.dll

will produce a wrapper assembly called ADODB.dll , not msado15. dll. The resulting assembly can then be copied into the application bin directory (or installed in the Global Assembly Cache), and referenced as with other .NET assemblies:

<%@ Import Namespace="ADODB" %>

The Type Library Convert Class

The System.Runtime.InteropServices namespace contains a class called TypeLibConverter , which provides methods to convert COM classes and interfaces into assembly meta data. This is really only useful if you are building tools that examine COM type libraries at runtime, and is outside the scope of this book.

Custom Wrappers

If your COM component doesn't have a type library then it's possible to create a custom wrapper that directly calls the COM component. This is outside the scope of the book, but for more information, see the topics "Programming with the .NET Framework", "Interoperating with Unmanaged Code", and "Customizing Standard Wrappers" in the SDK help file.

Using the Wrapper Assembly

Using the wrapper assembly is simply a case of treating it like any other managed assembly. For example, if you import the ADO namespace, you can use it in your ASP.NET pages like so:

<%@ Import Namespace="ADODB" %> <html> <script language="VB" runat="server"> Sub Page_Load(Sender As Object, e as EventArgs) Dim rs As New ADODB.Recordset rs.Open("publishers", "Provider=SQLOLEDB; Data Source=.; " & _ "Initial Catalog=pubs; User Id=sa") While Not rs.EOF Response.Write(rs.Fields("pub_name").Value & "<br/>") rs.MoveNext() End While rs.Close End Sub </script> </html>

Deploying Applications That Use COM

However great the COM interoperability story is, it doesn't get around the fact that COM components need to be registered. This is not a fault of .NET, more an issue of the way COM works, and you don't need to do anything other than the standard COM registration. However, the big problem this causes is with the xcopy deployment model, for which it isn't suitable. You can still xcopy the deployment, but you'd need to provide some form of script to register the COM components before the application is activated.

Using .NET Components from COM

The interoperability story doesn't end with using COM code in .NET, as the reverse is also possible. This allows the new language and class features to be used, but without getting rid of old applications. The workings of the wrapper class are shown in Figure 23-5 “ it marshals the COM calls through to the managed object:

Figure 23-5:

The story is very similar to its opposite that was just examined, as COM type libraries are created for the .NET assemblies. The difference is that there's slightly more work, as you have to explicitly decide which interfaces and methods you want exposed to COM. This is a crucial point, because for .NET components to be available in COM they have to have an Interface (see Chapter 3 for more details on Interfaces), and there are two ways to have this exposed “ manually or automatically. Manually Created Interfaces

Manually creating interfaces means you use the language features to explicitly declare the interface. For example, consider a Person class with two properties ( FirstName and LastName ) and one method ( FullName ). The interface and class in Visual Basic .NET could be defined as follows:

Public Interface IPersonVB Property FirstName() As String Property LastName() As String Function FullName() As String End Interface Public Class PersonVB Implements IPersonVB Private _firstName As String Private _lastName As String Public Sub New() ' default constructor required for interop End Sub Public Property FirstName() As String Implements IPersonVB.FirstName Get FirstName = _firstName End Get Set _firstName = value End Set End Property Public Property LastName() As String Implements IPersonVB.LastName Get LastName = _lastName End Get Set _lastName = value End Set End Property Public Function FullName() As String Implements IPersonVB.FullName Return _firstName & " " & _lastName End Function End Class

One thing to notice is that the class must have a public default constructor. In C#, the interface and class could be defined as follows:

public interface IPersonCS { string FirstName{get; set;} string LastName{get; set;} string FullName(); } public class PersonCS : IPersonCS { private string _firstName; private string _lastName; // default constructor required for interop public PersonCS() {} public string FirstName { get { return _firstName; } set { _firstName = value; } } public string LastName { get { return _lastName; } set { _lastName = value; } } public string FullName() { return _firstName + " " + _lastName; } }

Automatic Interfaces

The alternative approach is to use the Interop Services attributes to have an interface automatically created from the class. To do this you must use the InteropServices namespace, and then add an attribute in front of the class. This attribute will be one of the ClassInterfaceType attributes, which can be one of:

The use of this attribute form in Visual Basic .NET is as follows:

Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices <ClassInterfaceAttribute(ClassInterfaceType.AutoDual)> _ Public Class PersonVB

And in C#, it is:

using System.Runtime.InteropServices; [ClassInterfaceAttribute(ClassInterfaceType.AutoDual)] public class PersonCS

In addition to the ClassInterfaceAttribute , there are others that control how various parts of the assembly are exposed to COM. For example, the attribute GuidAttribute allows you to specify the GUID of the exposed item (class, interface, or assembly), and ComVisibleAttribute can be used to hide .NET types from COM.

Which Interface Method to Use

You've seen that there are three forms of interface creation, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. The real problem that arises is that of versioning “ as COM interfaces are immutable, and .NET has the ability to bind to version interfaces. So, the type of interface you expose to COM depends on how your .NET components are going to change over time. For example, consider the following code blocks.

In Visual Basic .NET:

Public Class A Public Sub Foo() End Sub End Class Public Class B Inherits A Public Sub Foo() End Sub End Class

In C#:

public class A { public void Foo(){} } public class B : A { public void Foo(){} }

Since class interfaces do not support versioning, consider what happens if class A is updated to version 2 by adding a new method. Managed users of the class are unaffected, but for unmanaged users of either class A or class B the code will break. This affects both early-bound clients (who rely on the layout of the class interface being immutable) as well as late-bound clients (who use DispIds , which change between versions). So, there are great dangers in exposing class interfaces.

By and large the safest option is for the manual creation of interfaces “ although it involves more work, you get complete control over the interface. The pros and cons of each method are explained in the following sections.

ClassInterfaceType.None and Manual Interface

Its advantages are as follows:

• There are no versioning problems because users can only call through explicitly created interfaces.

• The class author has full control over versioning of the class.

Its disadvantages are as follows:

• More work, as the interface has to be created manually for each class.

• No scripting support.

• Less design time support from some RAD tools.

ClassInterfaceType.AutoDispatch

Its advantages are as follows:

• No versioning problems because classes only support late binding, but without caching DispIds .

• Does not require user to create separate interface for each class.

• Supports scripting.

Its disadvantages are as follows:

• More work for class user.

• Less support in Visual Basic, as everything must be of type Object .

• Slower.

ClassInterfaceType.AutoDual

Advantages:

• No extra work for class author or user.

• Easy to use from all COM clients.

Disadvantage :

• Does not support versioning at all. Any class changes will break COM clients.

Exporting the Type Library

Once the .NET assembly has been created, you need to create a COM type library so that COM clients can set references to the classes. This is done using the Type Library Export tool, the syntax of which is:

tlbexp AssemblyName [ Options ]

where Options can be:

For example, if the Person class were compiled into a Person.dll assembly, you would use:

tlbexp Person.dll

By default this creates Person.tlb .

Registering the DLL for Local Use

Once the type library is created, the class needs to be registered in the Registry. Even though it's a .NET class, which ordinarily doesn't require registration, its use with COM means the wrapper must be registered. The registration is done using the regasm tool:

regasm AssemblyName [ Options ]

where Options can be:

For example, the Person class could be registered with:

ragasm Person.dll

You could also save on the explicit tlbexp step by doing:

regasm /tlb:Person.tlb Person.dll

This creates the type library and then registers it.

Once registered, the classes can be used as if they were COM-created classes. The DLL created must be in the same directory as the application executable.

Registering the DLL for Global Use

If you wish the .NET assembly to be used in multiple applications, then it must be registered in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC). This applies not only to .NET components used from .NET, but also to .NET components used from COM.

Generating a Strong Name

Before adding assemblies to the GAC they need to be strongly named. A Strong Name consists of the assembly identity (name, version, and culture), plus a public key and digital signature. A strong name is useful for several reasons:

• Guarantees uniqueness :Key pairs are globally unique, and no two will ever be the same.

• Guarantees version protection :Because the key pairs include a digital signature, they ensure protection against spoofed versions of code.

• Guarantees code integrity :The digital signature is part of the procedure that ensures code hasn't been changed since it was built.

You can create strong names with the sn utility, which has the following syntax:

sn [ -q(quiet)] Options [ parameters ]

There are plenty of options (detailed in the help), but the one we are interested in is the generation of key pairs:

sn k Person.snk

This generates a key pair and stores it in the file named Person.snk . The suffix can be anything, although by convention it is .snk .

At this stage the assembly doesn't know anything about the strong name. To guarantee the link between the assembly and the strong name file you need to add an attribute to the assembly. In Visual Basic .NET:

<assembly:AssemblyKeyFile("Person.snk")> _ Namespace People

And in C#:

[assembly:AssemblyKeyFile("PersonCS.snk")] namespace People

Installing in the Global Assembly Cache

Once the key pair has been constructed the assembly can be installed into the GACeither by using the:

• Windows Installer or

• Global Assembly Cache tool ( gacutil ).

Use the latter of these, with either the /i switch to install the assembly, or /u to uninstall the assembly. For example:

gacutil /i Person.dll

or:

gacutil /u Person

You can also use the /l option to list all assemblies in the cache. Alternatively, you can use the Assembly Cache Viewer (search the SDK for more information on this).

Using the .NET Component from COM

Once the .NET component is created and made available to COM (either in the application directory or the GAC), it's available for use. All you have to do is reference it in the usual way from the Project References dialog in Visual Studio. The component can then be used like so:

Dim p As New PersonVB.PersonVB p.FirstName = "Dave" p.LastName = "Sussman" MsgBox p.FullName

API Calls

The compatibility story doesn't stop with COM, as .NET provides a way to access DLLs that aren't COM based, using the Platform Invoke Services (P/Invoke) . This gives you the ability to call APIs in a manner similar to the way Visual Basic 6 does it “ by specifying the DLL and API call before it's used.

The Visual Basic .NET syntax is the same as Visual Basic 6:

Declare StringConversionType (Function Sub) _ MethodName Lib " DllName " ([ Args ]) As Type

Where:

• StringConversionType identifies the type of conversion that takes place for strings. This can be Ansi (the default) to convert all strings to ANSI values, Unicode to convert all strings to Unicode values, or Auto to convert strings according to the .NET runtime rules.

• MethodName is the name of the API to call.

• DllName is the name of the DLL.

• Args are any arguments to the API call.

• Type is the return type of the API call.

For example:

Declare Auto Function GetSystemMetrics _ Lib "User32.dll" (nIndex As Integer) As Integer

You can place this within a class if you wish to encapsulate several API calls:

Namespace Wrox Public Class Metrics Declare Auto Function GetSystemMetrics _ Lib "User32.dll" (nIndex As Integer) As Integer End Class End Namespace

You can then call this API like so:

Dim mt As New Metrics Dim val As Integer val = mt.GetSystemMetrics(SM_CXSCREEN)

Alternatively, you can wrap the API call in a class method, giving you the option of pre- or postprocessing the data:

Namespace Wrox Public Class Metrics Declare Auto Function GetSystemMetrics _ Lib "User32.dll" (nIndex As Integer) As Integer Public Function GetMetrics(Index As Integer) As Integer Return GetSystemMetrics(Index) End Function End Class End Namespace

This approach allows you to wrap many API calls into a single class.

For C# use the DllImport attribute, using the following syntax:

[DllImport("LibraryName", CallingConvention := " CallingConvention ", _ CharSet := " CharSet ", _ EntryPoint := " EntryPoint ", _ ExactSpelling := " ExactSpelling ", _ PreserveSig := " PreserveSig ", _ SetLastError := " SetLastError ")> _ static extern FunctionName( Arguments )

The fields of DllImport are detailed in the following table:

For many Win32 API calls you can accept the default values, for example:

[DllImport("User32.dll")] static extern int GetSystemMetrics(int nIndex);

This can be wrapped in a class to allow external use:

namespace Wrox { public class Metrics { [DllImport("User32.dll")] static extern int GetSystemMetrics(int nIndex); } }

Alternatively you can wrap the API call in a class method, giving you the option of pre- or postprocessing the data:

namespace Wrox { public class Metrics { [DllImport("User32.dll")] static extern int GetSystemMetrics(int nIndex); public int GetMetrics(int Index) { return GetSystemMetrics(Index); } } }

Using the API Class

Using this API class wrapper is just like using any other class. For example, consider the following ASP.NET page:

<%@ Import Namespace="Wrox" %> <html> <script Language="VB" runat="server"> Sub Page_Load(Sender As Object, E As EventArgs) Dim mt As New Metrics() Dim Width As Integer = mt.GetMetrics(MetricsValues.SM_CXSCREEN) Dim Height As Integer = mt.GetMetrics(MetricsValues.SM_CYSCREEN) VBScreen.Text = "VB Screen = " & Width.ToString() & " * " & _ Height.ToString() End Sub </script> <asp:Label id="Screen" runat="server"/> </html>

This displays the current screen resolution of the server. The values passed into the GetMetrics() method are defined in the class as an enum (see the Platform SDK under GetSystemMetrics for more details on these).

Type Marshalling

When dealing with API calls you often have to pass structures into the call, and the structure gets filled with the appropriate information. When doing this you need to tell the CLR how the structure is going to be arranged in memory, so that it matches the equivalent Win32 structure. Use the StructLayout attribute to do this.

For example, consider the GetSystemTime API call in Visual Basic .NET:

<StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)> Public Structure SystemTime Public wYear As Short Public wMonth As Short Public wDayOfWeek As Short Public wDay As Short Public wHour As Short Public wMinute As Short Public wSecond As Short Public wMilliseconds As Short End Structure Public Class API Declare Auto Sub GetSystemTime _ Lib "Kernel32.dll" (ByRef sysTime As SystemTime) End Class

The API call could then be used like this:

Dim st As New SystemTime() Dim t As New API() t.GetSystemTime(st) Response.Write("Month = " & st.Month)

In C#, you also specify attributes on the API arguments:

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)] public class SystemTime { public short wYear; public short wMonth; public short wDayOfWeek; public short wDay; public short wHour; public short wMinute; public short wSecond; public short wMilliseconds; } public class API { [DllImport("Kernel32.dll")] public static extern void GetSystemTime( [Out, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStruct)]SystemTime sysTime) }

The API call could then be used like this:

SystemTime st = new SystemTime(); API.GetSystemTime(st) Response.Write("Month = " + st.Month);

Marshalling Attributes

The StructLayout attribute determines how the CLR aligns the members of a class, allowing them to line up with their unmanaged equivalent. The possible values are:

The MarshalAs attribute gives the CLR explicit instructions on how the type is to be marshalled. The possible values for the UnmanagedType enum are:

Dangers of P/Invoke

When calling DLLs through the P/Invoke method, you should be aware that the CLR cannot apply any security checks to unmanaged code. With managed code you have great security control (safe types, no unmanaged memory, code security, versioning, and so on), but none of these are available in unmanaged code.

This issue shouldn't be confused with the integration of Windows Component Services security, which is covered in the Serviced Components section in Chapter 17.