Re: Exporting Classes from DLLs

From:
"aslan" <aslanski2002@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.vc.language
Date:
Sat, 4 Aug 2007 11:56:21 +0300
Message-ID:
<Omy6aVn1HHA.1336@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl>
"Alex Blekhman" <tkfx.REMOVE@yahoo.com>, iletisinde sunu yazdi,
news:uCRkhCV1HHA.3548@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

"Mike M" wrote:

A couple of weeks ago in this newsgroup (or it may have been the
un-managed
version of this group), [...]


This is unmanaged version.

someone was asking whether they should export a
"delete" function to go along with their create function which would
create/destroy an instance of a C++ class defined by the DLL. I'm
interested
in understanding how I can use this technique.


Besides exporting a class you can make common abstract base class and
implement it inside DLL. Like this:

// Common header file (used both by DLL and EXE)
//
class ISomething
{
public:
   ...
   virtual ~ISomething() {};
   virtual int Foo(int param) = 0;
   virtual void Delete() = 0;
};

// Export only one function:
//
__declspec(export/import) ISomething* CreateIt(...);

//// End of common header

// DLL implementation (.CPP file)
//
#include "Something.h"

class CSomething : public ISomething
{
public:
   ...
   virtual int Foo(int param) { ... }
   virtual void Delete() { delete this; }
};

ISomething* CreateIt(...)
{
   ...
   return new CSomething();
}

In EXE you call `CreateIt' to get pointer to `ISomething' interface and
use it:

ISomething* pSmth = CreateIt();
int a = pSmth->Foo(42);
...
pSmth->Delete();
pSmth = NULL;

Is there a way to inject the C++ class definitions into the library
without
polluting the export list?


You could get away making `CreateIt' returning `void*', however, it's not
type safe and error prone.

Alex

Hmmm.
That's almost what I do. But I export two functions from a DLL
void* CreateObject(UINT nID);
DestroyObject(void* p);

Actually I don't use the above names. Just ordinals 1 and 2 in the export
table.
=======================
LIBRARY XXX.DLL

VERSION 1.0

EXPORTS
   CreateObject @1 NONAME PRIVATE
   DestroyObject @2 NONAME PRIVATE
========================

Then to load it dynamically:
========================
struct KDLL
{
   HMODULE __hModule;
   KDLL()
   { __hModule = 0; }
   KDLL(LPCTSTR path)
   {
      __hModule = ::LoadLibrary(path);
   }
   ~KDLL()
   {
    //fprintf(stderr, "~KDLL\n");
      if (__hModule)
      {
         ::FreeLibrary(__hModule);
         __hModule = 0;
      }
   }
 void* FindFunction(LPCTSTR name)
   {
      void* ret = 0;
      if (__hModule)
         ret = ::GetProcAddress(__hModule, name);
      return ret;
   }
};
struct KObjLoader : KDLL
{
   typedef void* (CallType *FP_CreateObject)(uint type);
   typedef void (CallType *FP_DestroyObject)(void* pObj);
   FP_CreateObject __pfnCreateObject;
   FP_DestroyObject __pfnDestroyObject;
   KObjLoader()
   {
      __pfnCreateObject = 0;
      __pfnDestroyObject = 0;
   }
   ~KObjLoader()
   {
    //fprintf(stderr, "~KObjLoader\n");
   }
   KObjLoader(LPCTSTR path) : KDLL(path)
   {
      if (__hModule)
      {
         uint32 nFunc = 1;
         __pfnCreateObject = (FP_CreateObject)FindFunction( (LPCSTR)nFunc );
         ++ nFunc;
         __pfnDestroyObject = (FP_DestroyObject)FindFunction(
(LPCSTR)nFunc );
      }
      else
      {
         __pfnCreateObject = 0;
         __pfnDestroyObject = 0;
      }
   }
   void* k_CallType CreateObject(uint type)
   {
      return __pfnCreateObject ? __pfnCreateObject(type) : 0;
   }
   void CallType DestroyObject(void* pObj)
   {
      if (__pfnDestroyObject)
         __pfnDestroyObject(pObj);
   }
};
========================

I may think about your way of putting Delete inside the class.

--

Aslan

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