Generics and Com Visible .NET libraries

Question

I\'ve developed a VB.NET library (partially developed on C# as well) that heavily depends on inheriting from an abstract generic base class, and I\'m trying to figure out th

Answer 1

As i mentioned in comment writing library (dll) for MS Office applications is bit... hard-coded. This dll must exposes methods and properties to be able to use it in COM automation. To be able to achieve that, you need to write interface(s):

Namespace VBtoVBA
    Public Interface IMyDerivedClass
        Property MyProperty As String
    End Interface
End Namespace

then in DerivedClass

Public Class MyDerivedClass
    Inherits MyBaseClass(Of String)
    Implements IMyDerivedClass

    Private _myProperty As String

    Public Property MyProperty As String Implements IMyDerivedClass.MyProperty

Now, go to Project Properties window 1) choose Application tab - click on Assembly Information button and in the next window select Make assembly COM visible checkbox (apply setting using OK button),

2) choose Compile tab - select Register for COM interop checkbox

3) Save project and Build dll

4) Now, go to VBA Code editor in Office application -> References menu. In Reference window add reference to yourDllName.tlb

Now, you can use your dll in Office application ;)

I tested code:

Option Explicit

Sub DoSomething()
Dim m As VBtoVBA.MyDerivedClass

Set m = New VBtoVBA.MyDerivedClass

m.MyProperty = "Something"

MsgBox m.MyProperty


End Sub

and it works as well ;)