HOWTO: Create a DCOM VBR File for a VC++ Server

ID: Q184696

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual Basic Professional and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 5.0

SUMMARY

The Application Setup Wizard requires a Visual Basic Registration (.vbr) file to create a setup program for a client application that uses a distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) server. If you use Visual C++ to create a DCOM server, you must also create a .vbr file because Visual C++ does not automatically create .vbr files. This article demonstrates how to create a .vbr file for a Visual C++ DCOM server.

MORE INFORMATION

NOTE: This article requires extensive use of the Windows Registry Editor (RegEdit.exe). You should be familiar with modifying the Windows registry before attempting the steps outlined in this article.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys And Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

A .vbr file is similar to a .reg (Windows Registry) file. It has a slightly different format, but contains most of the same information. For more information about .reg files view the "Importing and Exporting the Registry to a Text File" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).

A .vbr file has the following general format:

Visual Basic 5.0 header information.

Registry keys to identify the server type library (.tlb).

Registry keys for the server.

Registry keys to identify each class within the server.

Registry keys for each interface of each class.

To see what a .vbr file looks like, you can make a simple ActiveX server in Visual Basic and automatically generate a .vbr file.

Steps to Create a Sample .vbr File in Visual Basic

Create a new ActiveX EXE project in Visual Basic.

On the Project menu, select Project Properties, and then select the Component tab.

Select the Remote Server Files check box.

On the File menu, click Make <sample>.exe to make the sample .exe file.

Visual Basic creates a .vbr file in the same folder as the .exe file.

NOTE: You can add some properties and methods to the default Class1 module in your ActiveX EXE project to see a more detailed example of a .vbr file.

Steps to Create a .vbr File for a Visual C++ Server

If a .reg file for your Visual C++ server is available, you can use it to obtain the information you need to create a .vbr file. If you have a .reg file for your Visual C++ server, go to the "Create The .vbr File" section later in this document.

Complete the following steps to manually create a .vbr file:

Collect Registry Information:

Use Notepad to view the .idl file for the type library for your Visual C ++ server. Depending on the type of control you have (ATL or MFC), you might need to use the .odl file instead. You can copy and paste the information into a Notepad text file for future reference.

Note the universally unique identifier (UUID) for the server's type library from the .idl file. You will use this UUID in step 3. You can find the type library UUID in the section delimited by square brackets that precedes the line "library <AppName>". The following example shows the UUID in an .idl file for an application named MyServer.exe:
```
      [
        uuid(EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35),
        version(2.0),
        helpstring("My Server is a Test")
      ]
      library MyServer
 
```

Start Registry Editor (RegEdit.exe). From the Edit menu, select Find, and then locate the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\<UUID from step 2>

Select Export Registry File from the Registry menu to export the key. Save the file as RegData.txt.

NOTE: The .txt extension allows you to easily modify the file with Notepad.

Run Notepad and open RegData.txt. Leave this file open.

Using RegEdit.exe locate the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\<ServerName.ClassName>\CLSID

There may be several of these keys. (You can use CTRL+F to Find Again). For each occurrence you find in the registry, export the key to a file with the .txt extension. For example, you can find the following keys in the sample MyServer.exe, which has three classes:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MyServer.clsCar\CLSID
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MyServer.clsDriver\CLSID
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MyServer.clsRoad\CLSID

Open the .txt files created above, and copy and paste their contents into RegData.txt.

For each ClassId obtained in step 5, use RegEdit to find the relevant keys, such as:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\<GUID from step 5>

Export each key to a file with the .txt extension.

Open each .txt file created above, and copy and paste the information to the end of the RegData.txt file created in step 4.

Return to the .idl file and find the interface IDs. You can tell which globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) are the interface IDs because each one is in a section that is enclosed in square brackets and precedes the line that begins with "interface myInterfaceName," as in the following example:
```
      [
            odl,
            uuid(EDBFE98C-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35),
            version(1.0),
            hidden,
            dual,
            nonextensible,
            oleautomation
          ]
          interface _clsCar : IDispatch {
 
```

For each interface ID, use RegEdit.exe to find the relevant keys, such as:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\<GUIDfrom step 8>

Export each key to a file with the .txt extension. Copy and paste the data from the .txt files into RegData.txt

Create the .vbr File:

Add the following three lines to a text file:

VB5SERVERINFO
VERSION=X.X
APPDESCRIPTION=My app description

NOTE: In the above three lines, replace X.X with the major.minor version numbers from the .idl file. Also, replace "My app description" with the "helpstring" data from the .idl file.

Add several lines based on the keys under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Typelib\ ServerID. In your Notepad file, RegData.txt, they look similar to the following lines:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-
00AA00A70E35}\2.0]@="My Server is a Test"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-
00AA00A70E35}\2.0\0]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-
00AA00A70E35}\2.0\0\win32]@="E:\\AutoServer\\MyServer.exe"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-
00AA00A70E35}\2.0\FLAGS]@="0"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-
00AA00A70E35}\2.0\HELPDIR]@="E:\\AutoServer"

Copy and paste the matching lines either from the RegData.txt file or from the .reg file created for the Visual C++ object.

Modify the text as follows:
1. Remove the square brackets and @ symbols.
2. Delete the fully qualified paths to file names. For instance, replace "E:\\AutoServer\\MyServer.exe" with "MyServer.exe".
3. Remove the quotes around any values on the right side of the = sign.
4. Put each entry on its own line. Due to screen width the text may wrap on the screen for appearance only.

You do not need to include the first entry, which indicates the parent key. Nor do you need to include any keys that also reference the HELPDIR key. The modified version of the preceding .reg file looks like the following sample in the .vbr file:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Typelib\{EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\2.0
= MyServer is a Test
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Typelib\{EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-
00AA00A70E35}\2.0\0\win32 = MyServer.exe
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Typelib\{EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-
00AA00A70E35}\2.0\FLAGS = 0

Follow the same conversion process for each registry key you exported. The .vbr file used for the Myserver example has three classes and looks like the following:

Sample Code


      VB5SERVERINFO
      VERSION=1.0.0
      APPDESCRIPTION=My Server is a Test
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Typelib\{EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\2.0
       = My Server is a Test
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Typelib\{EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-
       00AA00A70E35}\2.0\0\win32 = MyServer.exe
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Typelib\{EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\2.0\ 
       FLAGS = 0
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MyServer.clsRoad\CLSID = {EDBFE991-1FC6-11D1-9D43-
       00AA00A70E35}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EDBFE991-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ProgID
       = MyServer.clsRoad
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EDBFE991-1FC6-11D1-9D43-
       00AA00A70E35}\Version = 2.0
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EDBFE991-1FC6-11D1-9D43-
       00AA00A70E35}\Typelib = {EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EDBFE991-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       LocalServer32 = MyServer.exe
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE990-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35} =
       clsRoad
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE990-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       ProxyStubClsid = {00020420-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE990-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       ProxyStubClsid32 = {00020420-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE990-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       Typelib = {EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE990-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       Typelib\"version" = 2.0
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MyServer.clsDriver\CLSID =
       {EDBFE98F-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EDBFE98F-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ProgID
       = MyServer.clsDriver
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EDBFE98F-1FC6-11D1-9D43-
       00AA00A70E35}\Version = 2.0
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EDBFE98F-1FC6-11D1-9D43-
       00AA00A70E35}\Typelib = {EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EDBFE98F-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       LocalServer32 = MyServer.exe
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE98E-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35} =
       clsDriver
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE98E-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       ProxyStubClsid = {00020420-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE98E-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       ProxyStubClsid32 = {00020420-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE98E-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       Typelib = {EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE98E-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       Typelib\"version" = 2.0
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MyServer.clsCar\CLSID =
       {EDBFE98D-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EDBFE98D-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       ProgID = MyServer.clsCar
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EDBFE98D-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       Version = 2.0
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EDBFE98D-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       Typelib = {EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EDBFE98D-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       LocalServer32 = MyServer.exe
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE98C-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}
       = clsCar
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE98C-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       ProxyStubClsid = {00020420-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE98C-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       ProxyStubClsid32 = {00020420-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE98C-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       Typelib = {EDBFE98B-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\INTERFACE\{EDBFE98C-1FC6-11D1-9D43-00AA00A70E35}\ 
       Typelib\"version" = 2.0

The Visual Basic Setup Wizard can use this .vbr file to create a setup program for a Visual Basic client that uses the server remotely.

REFERENCES

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

Q161837 : HOWTO: Create a DCOM Client/Server Application

Keywords : kbcode kbnokeyword kbGrpVB
Version : WINDOWS:5.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto