How to: Support COM Interop by Displaying Each Windows Form on Its Own Thread

You can resolve COM interoperability problems by displaying your form on a .NET Framework message loop, which you can create by using the System.Windows.Forms.Application.Run method.

To make a Windows Form work correctly from a COM client application, you must run the form on a Windows Forms message loop. To do this, use one of the following approaches:

• Use the System.Windows.Forms.Form.ShowDialog method to display the Windows Form. For more information, see How to: Support COM Interop by Displaying a Windows Form with the ShowDialog Method.

• Display each Windows Form on a separate thread.

• Create a shared message loop on a new thread in the .NET Framework component. For more information, see How to: Support COM Interop by Displaying Windows Forms on a Shared Thread.

There is extensive support for this feature in Visual Studio.

Walkthrough: Supporting COM Interop by Displaying Each Windows Form on Its Own Thread
Walkthrough: Supporting COM Interop by Displaying Each Windows Form on Its Own Thread
Walkthrough: Supporting COM Interop by Displaying Each Windows Form on Its Own Thread
Walkthrough: Supporting COM Interop by Displaying Each Windows Form on Its Own Thread

Example

The following code example demonstrates how to display the form on a separate thread and call the System.Windows.Forms.Application.Run method to start a Windows Forms message pump on that thread. To use this approach, you must marshal any calls to the form from the unmanaged application by using the Invoke method.

This approach requires that each instance of a form runs on its own thread by using its own message loop. You cannot have more than one message loop running per thread. Therefore, you cannot change the client application's message loop. However, you can modify the .NET Framework component to start a new thread that uses its own message loop.

Imports System.Windows.Forms
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices

<ComClass(COMForm.ClassId, COMForm.InterfaceId, COMForm.EventsId)> _
Public Class COMForm

#Region "COM GUIDs"
    ' These  GUIDs provide the COM identity for this class 
    ' and its COM interfaces. If you change them, existing 
    ' clients will no longer be able to access the class.
    Public Const ClassId As String = "1b49fe33-7c93-41ae-9dc7-8ac4d823286a"
    Public Const InterfaceId As String = "11651e1f-6db0-4c9e-b644-dcb79e6de2f6"
    Public Const EventsId As String = "7e61f977-b39d-47a6-8f34-f743c65ae3a3"
#End Region

    ' A creatable COM class must have a Public Sub New() 
    ' with no parameters, otherwise, the class will not be 
    ' registered in the COM registry and cannot be created 
    ' via CreateObject.
    Public Sub New()
        MyBase.New()
    End Sub

    Private WithEvents frmManager As FormManager

    Public Sub ShowForm1()
        ' Call the StartForm method by using a new instance
        ' of the Form1 class.
        StartForm(New Form1)
    End Sub

    Private Sub StartForm(ByVal frm As Form)

        ' This procedure is used to show all forms
        ' that the client application requests. When the first form
        ' is displayed, this code will create a new message
        ' loop that runs on a new thread. The new form will
        ' be treated as the main form.

        ' Later forms will be shown on the same message loop.
        If IsNothing(frmManager) Then
            frmManager = New FormManager(frm)
        Else
            frmManager.ShowForm(frm)
        End If
    End Sub

    Private Sub frmManager_MessageLoopExit() _
    Handles frmManager.MessageLoopExit

        'Release the reference to the frmManager object.
        frmManager = Nothing

    End Sub

End Class
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports System.Threading
Imports System.Windows.Forms

<ComVisible(False)> _
Friend Class FormManager
    ' This class is used so that you can generically pass any
    ' form that you want to the delegate.

    Private WithEvents appContext As ApplicationContext
    Private Delegate Sub FormShowDelegate(ByVal form As Form)
    Event MessageLoopExit()

    Public Sub New(ByVal MainForm As Form)
        Dim t As Thread
        If IsNothing(appContext) Then
            appContext = New ApplicationContext(MainForm)
            t = New Thread(AddressOf StartMessageLoop)
            t.IsBackground = True
            t.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA)
            t.Start()
        End If
    End Sub

    Private Sub StartMessageLoop()
        ' Call the Application.Run method to run the form on its own message loop.
        Application.Run(appContext)
    End Sub

    Public Sub ShowForm(ByVal form As Form)

        Dim formShow As FormShowDelegate

        ' Start the main form first. Otherwise, focus will stay on the 
        ' calling form.
        appContext.MainForm.Activate()

        ' Create a new instance of the FormShowDelegate method, and
        ' then invoke the delegate off the MainForm object.
        formShow = New FormShowDelegate( _
        AddressOf ShowFormOnMainForm_MessageLoop)

        appContext.MainForm.Invoke(formShow, New Object() {form})
    End Sub

    Private Sub ShowFormOnMainForm_MessageLoop(ByVal form As Form)
        form.Show()
    End Sub

    Private Sub ac_ThreadExit( _
    ByVal sender As Object, _
    ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
    Handles appContext.ThreadExit
        appContext.MainForm.Dispose()
        appContext.MainForm = Nothing
        appContext.Dispose()
        appContext = Nothing
        RaiseEvent MessageLoopExit()
    End Sub
End Class
Imports System.Windows.Forms

Public Class Form1
    Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form

    Private Sub Button1_Click( _
    ByVal sender As System.Object, _
    ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
    Handles Button1.Click
        MessageBox.Show("Clicked button")
    End Sub

    'Form overrides dispose to clean up the component list.
    <System.Diagnostics.DebuggerNonUserCode()> _
    Protected Overloads Overrides Sub Dispose(ByVal disposing As Boolean)
        If disposing AndAlso components IsNot Nothing Then
            components.Dispose()
        End If
        MyBase.Dispose(disposing)
    End Sub

    'Required by the Windows Form Designer
    Private components As System.ComponentModel.IContainer

    'NOTE: The following procedure is required by the Windows Form Designer
    'It can be modified using the Windows Form Designer.  
    'Do not modify it using the code editor.
    <System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThrough()> _
    Private Sub InitializeComponent()
        Me.TextBox1 = New System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
        Me.TextBox2 = New System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
        Me.TextBox3 = New System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
        Me.Button1 = New System.Windows.Forms.Button
        Me.SuspendLayout()
        '
        'TextBox1
        '
        Me.TextBox1.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(12, 12)
        Me.TextBox1.Name = "TextBox1"
        Me.TextBox1.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(100, 20)
        Me.TextBox1.TabIndex = 0
        '
        'TextBox2
        '
        Me.TextBox2.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(12, 38)
        Me.TextBox2.Name = "TextBox2"
        Me.TextBox2.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(100, 20)
        Me.TextBox2.TabIndex = 1
        '
        'TextBox3
        '
        Me.TextBox3.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(12, 66)
        Me.TextBox3.Name = "TextBox3"
        Me.TextBox3.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(100, 20)
        Me.TextBox3.TabIndex = 2
        '
        'Button1
        '
        Me.Button1.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(12, 92)
        Me.Button1.Name = "Button1"
        Me.Button1.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(75, 23)
        Me.Button1.TabIndex = 3
        Me.Button1.Text = "Command"
        Me.Button1.UseVisualStyleBackColor = True
        '
        'Form1
        '
        Me.AutoScaleDimensions = New System.Drawing.SizeF(6.0!, 13.0!)
        Me.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font
        Me.ClientSize = New System.Drawing.Size(132, 146)
        Me.Controls.Add(Me.Button1)
        Me.Controls.Add(Me.TextBox3)
        Me.Controls.Add(Me.TextBox2)
        Me.Controls.Add(Me.TextBox1)
        Me.Name = "Form1"
        Me.Text = "Form1"
        Me.ResumeLayout(False)
        Me.PerformLayout()

    End Sub
    Friend WithEvents TextBox1 As System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
    Friend WithEvents TextBox2 As System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
    Friend WithEvents TextBox3 As System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
    Friend WithEvents Button1 As System.Windows.Forms.Button

End Class

Compiling the Code

• Compile the COMForm, Form1, and FormManager types into an assembly called COMWinform.dll. Register the assembly for COM interop by using one of the methods described in Packaging an Assembly for COM. You can now use the assembly and its corresponding type library (.tlb) file in unmanaged applications. For example, you can use the type library as a reference in a Visual Basic 6.0 executable project.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Support COM Interop by Displaying a Windows Form with the ShowDialog Method
How to: Support COM Interop by Displaying Windows Forms on a Shared Thread

Concepts

Exposing .NET Framework Components to COM
Packaging an Assembly for COM
Registering Assemblies with COM
Windows Forms and Unmanaged Applications Overview