Hi,
This is my first thrust with COM.. I am not sure I am really clear with the concept though I think I have picked up the basics. I am working on an enhancement with COM. Have gone through quite a few tutorials but I found some stuffs still confusing/unexplained.
I am trying to do the following and this is how and why I am doing. Please comment if it makes sense :
I need to add two new methods [accessors] for an already exising COM implementing class [it implements 3 interfaces currently]. I have done it as below :
i) I have added a new interface[with UUID] in the IDL file. The reason I added a new interface instead of adding to the exisitng one is I suspect, adding new methods would screw up the programs which are already using the interface. Am I correct ?
ii) I see that all interfaces are added inside some co-class in the IDL. I added this new interface to one of the co-class where other related interfaces were defined. But honestly, what does this co-class do ? Is it some kind of a 'abstract class' definition or access point? Should I need to change the UUID now after adding a new interface ?
iii) I added the interface the COM implementing class and put up a COM_INTERFACE_ENTRY(newInterface).
Are the above steps correct or am I missing something ? I see that all other interfaces have a "smart pointer definition" [ex : _COM_SMARTPTR_TYPEDEF(IAtlas2, __uuidof(IAtlas2)); ] but not able to see one for my interface. Why is it so ?
Update : In the COM/OLE viewer, i can see the new interface being defined for the co-class. the problem is "new" .tlh and .tli files are not getting generated even on a complete rebuild.
any help is appreciated,
Shishir