COM References
When Visual Studio compiles code that uses a COM object, it creates a wrapper DLL. For example, compiling code in MyProject that uses Shell32.dll will result in both MyProject.dll and Interop.Shell32.dll being created.
This also needs to happen if there is a transitive dependency - if OtherProject depends on MyProject, and MyProject uses Shell32.dll, then Interop.Shell32.dll also needs to be available when building OtherProject.
Requirements
- If needed, ActiveX/COM objects must be pre-installed on the build system. NPanday will not do the installation.
- Adding ActiveX/COM from VS "Add Reference" should update the POM information with a <dependency> with type com_reference.
- Generating POMs from a project containing a COM reference will result in a POM with a dependency with type com_reference.
- When a dependency with type com_reference is encountered, NPanday will generate the interop wrapper DLL and use it during compilation.
- Deleting ActiveX/COM reference should remove the com_reference dependency from the POM.
- Adding ActiveX/COM from "Add Maven Artifact" local or remote Maven repository is not allowed. If this attempted, a meaningful error message should be displayed, and nothing should be added to the POM.
- Building a project with ActiveX/COM references should successfully build if the referenced ActiveX is pre-installed in the system.
- Building a project with ActiveX/COM references but the actual ActiveX/COM is not in the system should prompt a meaningful error message.
- Interop wrapper DLLs may be installed/deployed to the local/remote repository and consumed as normal 'library' DLLs.
