HOWTO: Implement IObjectSafety in Visual Basic Controls

ID: Q182598


The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Control Creation, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 5.0


SUMMARY

This article shows you how to implement the IObjectSafety interface in Visual Basic controls to mark the controls safe for scripting and initialization. By default, Visual Basic controls use component category entries in the registry to mark the control safe for scripting and initialization. Implementing the IObjectSafety interface is the preferred method. This article contains all the code required to implement this interface in Visual Basic controls.

Please keep in mind that a control should only be marked as safe if it is, in fact, safe. This article does not describe the details of marking controls as safe for scripting and initialization, it simply shows you how to do it in code. Please refer to the Internet Client SDK documentation for a detailed description of this. See "Safe Initialization and Scripting for ActiveX Controls" under the Component Development Section.


MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: One or more of the following functions are discussed in this article; VarPtr, VarPtrArray, VarPtrStringArray, StrPtr, ObjPtr. These functions are not supported by Microsoft Technical Support. They are not documented in the Visual Basic documentation and are provided in this Knowledge Base article "as is." Microsoft does not guarantee that they will be available in future releases of Visual Basic.

In this article you will create a simple Visual Basic control and mark it safe for scripting and initialization.

  1. Copy the following text in Notepad and save the file as OBJSAFE.ODL:


  2. 
          [
              uuid(C67830E0-D11D-11cf-BD80-00AA00575603),
              helpstring("VB IObjectSafety Interface"),
              version(1.0)
          ]
          library IObjectSafetyTLB
          {
              importlib("stdole2.tlb");
              [
                  uuid(CB5BDC81-93C1-11cf-8F20-00805F2CD064),
                  helpstring("IObjectSafety Interface"),
                  odl
              ]
              interface IObjectSafety:IUnknown {
                  [helpstring("GetInterfaceSafetyOptions")]
                  HRESULT GetInterfaceSafetyOptions(
                            [in]  long  riid,
                            [in]  long *pdwSupportedOptions,
                            [in]  long *pdwEnabledOptions);
    
                  [helpstring("SetInterfaceSafetyOptions")]
                  HRESULT SetInterfaceSafetyOptions(
                            [in]  long  riid,
                            [in]  long  dwOptionsSetMask,
                            [in]  long  dwEnabledOptions);
               }
           }
     
  3. From a command prompt, type the following command to generate a TLB file:


  4. MKTYPLIB objsafe.odl /tlb objsafe.tlb
  5. From Visual Basic, create an ActiveX Control project. In the Properties box, change the name of the project to IObjSafety and the name of the control to DemoCtl. Put a CommandButton named cmdTest on the control. In the Click event handler of the cmdTest, put a MsgBox "Test" statement.


  6. From your Visual Basic Project References, browse to and add the objsafe.tlb file created in step 2.


  7. Add a new module to your project with the following code and name the module basSafeCtl:


  8. 
          Option Explicit
    
          Public Const IID_IDispatch = "{00020400-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"
          Public Const IID_IPersistStorage = _
            "{0000010A-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"
          Public Const IID_IPersistStream = _
            "{00000109-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"
          Public Const IID_IPersistPropertyBag = _
            "{37D84F60-42CB-11CE-8135-00AA004BB851}"
    
          Public Const INTERFACESAFE_FOR_UNTRUSTED_CALLER = &H1
          Public Const INTERFACESAFE_FOR_UNTRUSTED_DATA = &H2
          Public Const E_NOINTERFACE = &H80004002
          Public Const E_FAIL = &H80004005
          Public Const MAX_GUIDLEN = 40
    
          Public Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" _
             (pDest As Any, pSource As Any, ByVal ByteLen As Long)
          Public Declare Function StringFromGUID2 Lib "ole32.dll" (rguid As _
             Any, ByVal lpstrClsId As Long, ByVal cbMax As Integer) As Long
    
          Public Type udtGUID
              Data1 As Long
              Data2 As Integer
              Data3 As Integer
              Data4(7) As Byte
          End Type
    
          Public m_fSafeForScripting As Boolean
          Public m_fSafeForInitializing As Boolean
    
          Sub Main()
              m_fSafeForScripting = True
              m_fSafeForInitializing = True
          End Sub 
  9. From Project Properties, change the Startup Object to "Sub Main" in order to execute the Sub Main above. This is where you will specify the values of safe for scripting and/or initialization variables using the m_fSafeForScripting and m_fSafeForInitializing variables.


  10. Open the code window of your control. Add the following line of code to the Declaration Section (right after Option Explicit or as the first):

    Implements IObjectSafety.


  11. Copy the following two procedures to your controls code:


  12. 
          Private Sub IObjectSafety_GetInterfaceSafetyOptions(ByVal riid As _
          Long, pdwSupportedOptions As Long, pdwEnabledOptions As Long)
    
              Dim Rc      As Long
              Dim rClsId  As udtGUID
              Dim IID     As String
              Dim bIID()  As Byte
    
              pdwSupportedOptions = INTERFACESAFE_FOR_UNTRUSTED_CALLER Or _
                                    INTERFACESAFE_FOR_UNTRUSTED_DATA
    
              If (riid <> 0) Then
                  CopyMemory rClsId, ByVal riid, Len(rClsId)
    
                  bIID = String$(MAX_GUIDLEN, 0)
                  Rc = StringFromGUID2(rClsId, VarPtr(bIID(0)), MAX_GUIDLEN)
                  Rc = InStr(1, bIID, vbNullChar) - 1
                  IID = Left$(UCase(bIID), Rc)
    
                  Select Case IID
                      Case IID_IDispatch
                          pdwEnabledOptions = IIf(m_fSafeForScripting, _
                        INTERFACESAFE_FOR_UNTRUSTED_CALLER, 0)
                          Exit Sub
                      Case IID_IPersistStorage, IID_IPersistStream, _
                         IID_IPersistPropertyBag
                          pdwEnabledOptions = IIf(m_fSafeForInitializing, _
                        INTERFACESAFE_FOR_UNTRUSTED_DATA, 0)
                          Exit Sub
                      Case Else
                          Err.Raise E_NOINTERFACE
                          Exit Sub
                  End Select
              End If
          End Sub
    
          Private Sub IObjectSafety_SetInterfaceSafetyOptions(ByVal riid As _
          Long, ByVal dwOptionsSetMask As Long, ByVal dwEnabledOptions As Long)
              Dim Rc          As Long
              Dim rClsId      As udtGUID
              Dim IID         As String
              Dim bIID()      As Byte
    
              If (riid <> 0) Then
                  CopyMemory rClsId, ByVal riid, Len(rClsId)
    
                  bIID = String$(MAX_GUIDLEN, 0)
                  Rc = StringFromGUID2(rClsId, VarPtr(bIID(0)), MAX_GUIDLEN)
                  Rc = InStr(1, bIID, vbNullChar) - 1
                  IID = Left$(UCase(bIID), Rc)
    
                  Select Case IID
                      Case IID_IDispatch
                          If ((dwEnabledOptions And dwOptionsSetMask) <> _
                       INTERFACESAFE_FOR_UNTRUSTED_CALLER) Then
                              Err.Raise E_FAIL
                              Exit Sub
                          Else
                              If Not m_fSafeForScripting Then
                                  Err.Raise E_FAIL
                              End If
                              Exit Sub
                          End If
    
                      Case IID_IPersistStorage, IID_IPersistStream, _
                    IID_IPersistPropertyBag
                          If ((dwEnabledOptions And dwOptionsSetMask) <> _
                        INTERFACESAFE_FOR_UNTRUSTED_DATA) Then
                              Err.Raise E_FAIL
                              Exit Sub
                          Else
                              If Not m_fSafeForInitializing Then
                                  Err.Raise E_FAIL
                              End If
                              Exit Sub
                          End If
    
                      Case Else
                          Err.Raise E_NOINTERFACE
                          Exit Sub
                  End Select
              End If
          End Sub 
  13. Save your project and files. Make an OCX from your project. Your control now implements the IObjectSafety interface. You can test it be inserting the control in an HTM file.



REFERENCES

Internet Client SDK - Component Development - Safe Initialization and Scripting for ActiveX Controls

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q161873 HOWTO: Mark MFC Controls Safe for Scripting/Initialization

Additional query words: safety scripting persistence initialization

Keywords : kbActiveX kbVBp500 kbDSupport kbhowto AXSDKControls InetSDKSafeControl kbIEFAQ
Version : WINDOWS:5.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto


Last Reviewed: January 27, 2000
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