Question

I have a simple c++ Application. This Application is just printing text out.
I have also a c# .dll NET 3.5 which parses complex xml files, extracts values and saves them into a List. Its like 2 Classes with 4 methods. They open a file, parse the xml and store it into a List. When the c# .dll is done, it has a List with 10000 values;

Since i do not want to write the complex parsing XML in c++, i would like to use my c# xml parsing .dll.

Is it possible for me, to call my c# .dll from inside my c++ application, let the c# .dll parse a specified xml file, and return that created List, with the parsed xml values, to my c++ application?

In my c++ application i would proceed to modify the data within the returned list.

edit: i would be using vc++ (Microsoft Visual Studio 2010)

edit2: the vc++ app would be an expension/plug-in to another bigger Application. I would register the plug-in to that bigger application, and every time i press the icon in the menu, my vc++ application would be started

edit3: Has anyone experience with such a task? I kinda need a clear yes or no if it is possible.

edit4: i do want to avoid reading files that have been written by my .net .dll. I want my c++ app to send a string to my .net .dll and receive back a list/array object. Or is this a bad idea and i should do the xml parsing in c++ itself?

Answer 1

Yes, you can do it, but its kinda hard. One way to do it is to use C++ to load up CLR and execute your function, something like this:

code inspired by Blizzhackers.cc

void StartNET()
{
   DWORD result;
   ICLRRuntimeHost* pCLR = NULL;

   CorBindToRuntimeEx(NULL, L"wks", NULL, CLSID_CLRRuntimeHost, IID_ICLRRuntimeHost, (LPVOID*)&pCLR);
   pCLR->Start();

   pCLR->ExecuteInDefaultAppDomain(L"C:\\myNET.dll", L"myNet.Program", L"Main", L"arg", &result);

   pCLR->Stop();
}

This C++ code will execute the int Main(string arg) function from namespace myNet and class Program, by that I mean:

myNET.dll:

namespace myNet
{
     class Program
     {
            int Main(string arg)
            {
                    //and here you can run your XML parser:

                    List<string> myList = XMLParse();

                    FileStream fs = new Filestream("xmllist.txt");
                    StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(fs);

                    foreach(string s in myList)
                         sw.WriteLine(s);

                    sw.Close();
                    fs.Close();

                    return 1;
            }

            List<string> XMLParse()
            {
                    //Your code here
                    return aList;
            }
     }

}

And after this you could use c++ to get the files from xmllist.txt, something like:

vector<char[]> getList()
{
      vector<char[]> *myVector = new vector<char>;
      ifstream cin("xmllist.txt");
      while(!cin.eof())
      {
          char line[100];
          cin >> line;
          myVector.push(line);
      }
      cin.close();
      return myVector;
}

I don’t know if this last function works, but you get the general idea.