Re: Exposing classes via __declspec(dllexport)

My apologies up front because this question is not MFC specific per se.
 I value the input from everyone here so that's why I'm asking in this
newsgroup.

I have a need to create a static library that exposes the ability to
create an instance of an class. I do not want users of the lib to have
the ability to 'new' on my classes. I want them to have to call an
exported function that creates the object and returns the pointer. What
I've found in my initial effort is that I'm required to make the
constructor public in order for __declspec(dllexport) to work correctly.
 That is not what I want at all so I'm researching alternative
approaches. I know in C#, it's as simple has marking the constructor
'internal'. I'm finding that it's not that simple in C++.

I've found this article:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cpp/howto_export_cpp_classes.aspx

That gives me some hints into alternative approaches but I'm looking to
the experts for the 'best' approach.

To recap, I want to expose a class to my clients but I do not want them
to have the ability to create a new instance of my object. I want to
'hide' the constructor and members of the class. They should only have
access to the returned pointer and have the ability to call methods on
the object.