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 The Big One! Complete vbACOM Developers install, including Help Files, Sample Code and VB6 Binaries (956kb)
 Download the VB5 binary version of vbaCOM (74kb)
Another amazing release for vbAccelerator from Paul Wilde (prw.exponential@dial.pipex.com).
Overview
The vbACOM library is a DLL designed to allow Visual Basic control developers the same flexibility available
to control developers using "lower level" languages. The way that the library provides this flexibilty is
through exposing the COM interfaces that are supported by all ActiveX controls, but are kept hidden from
the VB developer. Although this "behind the scenes" automatic handling of some of the more tricky aspects
of COM programming is one of the greatest strengths of VB, it can also hamper the developer who needs
to get down to the bare bones and do some really hardcore stuff.
Supported COM Interfaces
In this, the first official release, the library exposes the following interfaces:
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IPerPropertyBrowsingVB
This interface allows developers to implement dynamic drop down lists for property values in property browsers that support it (such as the VB property browser). Although VB allows this in a limited way, through the use of the Enum data type, it offers no way to create dynamic lists such as a list of controls present on a form.
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IOleObjectVB
This interface allows developers to interact with the container of the control. Uses of this interface include requesting the container to provide context-sensitive pop-up menus for the control, and automatically limiting the size of the control to predefined dimensions (useful for controls that are "invisible at run time", but show an icon representing the control at design-time).
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IOleInPlaceActiveObjectVB
This interface allows developers to interact with the container of the control. Uses of this interface include specifying non-standard behaviour for system "hot-keys", such as the Escape, Enter, and Tab keys.
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IOleControlVB
This interface allows developers to interact with the container of the control. Uses of this interface include full customisation of the mnemonic support provided for controls. (Although VB does provide support for mnemonics, it is very limited.)
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IEnumVariantVB
This interface, although not strictly a control-specific interface, allows control developers to create their own collection objects without having to resort to wrapping the standard VB collection object.
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