Once an out-of-process component project is tested and debugged in the development environment, you can compile and test the .exe file.
An ActiveX component is compiled the same way any Visual Basic project is compiled — by choosing Make from the File menu. The .exe file includes a type library that describes your objects and allows them to be browsed. Visual Basic automatically registers the component in your Windows registry when you make the executable file.
Note When you distribute your application as part of an integrated solution, registration is done during setup. If you use the Visual Basic Package and Deployment Wizard, registration of your component will be included in the setup process automatically. This is discussed in "Deploying Components" in "Debugging, Testing, and Deploying Components."
For More Information The Package and Deployment Wizard is described in "Distributing Your Applications" in the Visual Basic Programmer’s Guide.
Note This topic is part of a series that walks you through creating a sample ActiveX EXE. It begins with the topic Creating an ActiveX EXE Component.
To compile and test the Coffee executable
You can tell the entries apart by observing the Location in the information panel at the bottom of the dialog box.
Notice that all the instances of CoffeeWatch appear to get their CoffeeReady events at the same time. In reality, the clients get their events one after the other — a single thread of execution traces through all of the event handlers. You can see this demonstrated in the sample applications for this chapter.
Important When multiple objects are handling events from one event source — a scenario referred to as multicasting — the order in which they get events is undefined, and implementation dependent. You should never write code that depends on any particular order of event arrival among the multicasting clients.
Events are anonymous — that is, the object that raises the event doesn’t know how many objects (if any) are handling the event.
To switch back to using Coffee.vbp, you can use the References dialog box to clear the entry for the .exe file and check the entry for the .vbp file instead.
Note You can compile CoffeeWatch.exe using either the compiled Coffee.exe, or Coffee.vbp. The latter is useful for debugging with multiple clients. The CoffeeWatch executable will be compiled using whichever entry is currently checked in the References dialog box.
For More Information You can read more about test projects and debugging techniques in "Debugging, Testing, and Deploying Components."
This topic is part of a series that walks you through creating a sample ActiveX EXE.
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Go to the next step | ActiveX EXE Component Creation Summary |
Start from the beginning | Creating an ActiveX EXE Component |