ActiveX Component port VB6 to PB

[Mark Simms]

I've done some searching in this forum, but could not find the answer to this question:
How difficult would it be to port VB source code that basically generates an ActiveX Dll ? The latter which would be something along the lines of an enhanced combobox or listbox GUI control.

[Knuth Konrad]

Out of the box, PB compilers can't create ActiveX servers, meaning: you can use existing COM objects from within PB, but can't create COM objects with PB.

See if the first file located here is of any help to you.

[Chris Boss]

Mark,

PB doesn't currently support building activeX controls.

That said, building a customized combobox or listbox is not overly difficult.

The Windows API offers a number of ways to accomplish this.

The easiest would be to use an Ownerdraw combobox or listbox which generates the WM_DRAWITEM message to the parent dialog. You can process this message and custom draw the items in the control.

For example, if you wanted a combobox which displayed a list of colors, with each item having a rectangle with that color or maybe a combobox with a list of installed fonts, displaying how each font actually looks, this can be done using ownerdraw.

Here is an example of what can be done using ownerdraw:

[Mark Simms]

Thanks much Chris. My problem goes a bit deeper....I have built an Excel Add-in which I am attempting to add a DLL dependency so that licensing authentication can be made using SofPro's PC Guard product. Using a DLL for the GUI control would help in that regard....although a technically proficient programmer could tear out the DLL calls to the GUI control and replace them with generic controls. The other alternative is a DLL that contains vital data needed to support the add-in. This might be a better approach.
As everyone knows, all XLA and XLS files are easily VBA-decrypted, even in the latest 2007 release.