Need help, handling C++ dll in vb.net

[ByVal]

Hi everyone,

I'm using visual studio 2005 and i'm using a third party C++ dll which cannot be directly added as reference in my project.... A sample project made in C++ has been provided together with the SDK, however the project i'm doing needs to be in vb.net.


In the dll i'm using there is a method called BioDRV_Enroll which is declared as DWORD BioDRV_Enroll(hWnd, lpReserved)

HWND hWnd <---- Window handle to receive the completion message.
LPVOID lpReserved <----Reserved(null must be set)

This method should return a message know as BIODRV_COMPLETE_ENROLL
and together with that is a WPARAM and LPARAM...

my problem is how to declare it in VB or VB.net for that matter and access those return message after i invoke the function..

Any help would be greatly appreciated as i am new to this programming language..


Thanks and Regards,
ByVal

[HairyMonkeyMan]

Hello ByVal,

Welcome to codeguru

This is how I declare the PostMessage function in user32.dll:

    <DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError:=True, CharSet:=CharSet.Auto)> _
    Public Function PostMessage( _
        ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, _
        ByVal Msg As UInteger, _
        ByVal wParam As IntPtr, _
        ByVal lParam As IntPtr) As Boolean
    End Function

Hope it helps

[ByVal]

Hi HairyMonkeyMay,

Thanks for the quick response.

Currently this is how i declare the method

 Private Declare Function BioDRV_Enroll Lib "FvidDrv.dll" (ByVal HWND As Long, ByVal LPVOID As IntPtr) As Short

and i have a method that uses the function that looks like this

 Private Function Enroll() As Boolean      

            Dim s As Long = BioDRV_Enroll(Me.Handle.ToInt32, Nothing)

            If s <> 0
                  Return False
            End If

 Return True

 End Function

It properly returns the correct value...as for this function a zero which signifies a normal exit...

however this is an asynchronous-type function and its completion is judged by the completion message called BIODRV_COMPLET_ENROLL.

The message reports the completion of the function above and it also has a WPARAM and LPARAM that accompanies the message...

my problem is on how to manipulate this WPARAM and LPARAM as i need to control them to get the returned handle to proceed with other processes.


Thanks in advance for your help...and i certainly thank you for the code snippet you gave, looks like that's how a true .net declaration is done.

Thanks and Regards,
ByVal

[dglienna]

Sounds like you need to create a DELAGATE to handle the external condition

[ByVal]

Sounds like you need to create a DELAGATE to handle the external condition

Hi dglienna,

You mentioned delegate, would it allow me to control an unmanaged dll directly in my vb.net project? my fear is that I would have to create another dll to handle all messages that is returned by the current dll, which is additional hassle.....if it is possible to handle this wparam and lparam using delegate in vb.net how can i go about with this? thank you very much for your time.

Thanks and Regards,
ByVal

[dglienna]

I'm not sure, but you can take a look at this (and other) code:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vb/Delegate.aspx