Regfree COM event fails from other thread

Question

I have a COM visible .NET class which exposes events and is used from VB6. For the last couple of days I have been trying to get this to work with regfree COM, but without success.

• The VB6 event runs in regfree mode when the event is fired from the original thread.
• The VB6 event runs when fired from another thread when the typelib is registered. (regasm /tlb /codebase followed by regasm /codebase /unregister, the latter does not unregister the tlb)

When firing from another thread in regfree mode it throws an exception, thus the VB6 event code is never executed.

System.Reflection.TargetException: Object does not match target type.

   at System.RuntimeType.InvokeDispMethod(String name, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Object target, Object[] args, Boolean[] byrefModifiers, Int32 culture, String[] namedParameters)
   at System.RuntimeType.InvokeMember(String name, BindingFlags bindingFlags, Binder binder, Object target, Object[] providedArgs, ParameterModifier[] modifiers, CultureInfo culture, String[] namedParams)
   at System.RuntimeType.ForwardCallToInvokeMember(String memberName, BindingFlags flags, Object target, Int32[] aWrapperTypes, MessageData& msgData)
   at Example.Vb6RegFreeCom.IExampleClassEvents.TestEvent()
   at Example.Vb6RegFreeCom.ExampleClass.OnTestEvent(Action func) in ExampleClass.cs:line 78

There are two scenarios I can think of: 1) the manifest is missing something related to the tlb registration, or 2) the activation context is lost when creating the new thread. Unfortunately, I don't know how to find out which is the case, or maybe it is even caused by something else.

Below is a basic example showing my problem.

Manifest (VB6 executable)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<assembly xsi:schemaLocation="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1 assembly.adaptive.xsd" manifestVersion="1.0" xmlns:asmv1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" xmlns:asmv2="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2" xmlns:dsig="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#" xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <assemblyIdentity name="VB6COM" version="1.0.0.0" type="win32" />
  <dependency xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2">
    <dependentAssembly codebase="Example.Vb6RegFreeCom.tlb">
      <assemblyIdentity name="Example.Vb6RegFreeCom" version="1.0.0.0" publicKeyToken="B5630FCEE39CF455" language="neutral" processorArchitecture="x86" />
    </dependentAssembly>
  </dependency>
</assembly>

Manifest (C# DLL)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
  <assemblyIdentity name="Example.Vb6RegFreeCom" version="1.0.0.0" publicKeyToken="b5630fcee39cf455" processorArchitecture="x86"></assemblyIdentity>
  <clrClass clsid="{8D51802D-0DAE-40F2-8559-7BF63C92E261}" progid="Example.Vb6RegFreeCom.ExampleClass" threadingModel="Both" name="Example.Vb6RegFreeCom.ExampleClass" runtimeVersion="v4.0.30319"></clrClass>
  <file name="Example.Vb6RegFreeCom.dll" hashalg="SHA1"></file>
  <!--
  <file name="Example.Vb6RegFreeCom.TLB">
    <typelib tlbid="{FABD4158-AFDB-4223-BB09-AB8B45E3816E}" version="1.0" flags="" helpdir="" />
  </file>
  -->
</assembly>

C# (platform target: x86)

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Threading;
using System.Windows.Forms;

using Timer = System.Threading.Timer;
using FormsTimer = System.Windows.Forms.Timer;

namespace Example.Vb6RegFreeCom {
    [ComVisible(true)]
    [InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIDispatch)]
    [Guid("467EB602-B7C4-4752-824A-B1BC164C7962")]
    public interface IExampleClass {
        [DispId(1)] int Test(int mode);
    }

    [ComVisible(true)]
    [InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIDispatch)]
    [Guid("2669EBDB-16D9-45C8-B0A3-ED2CEE26862C")]
    public interface IExampleClassEvents {
        [DispId(1)] void TestEvent();
    }

    [ComVisible(true)]
    [ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.None)]
    [ComSourceInterfaces(typeof(IExampleClassEvents))]
    [Guid("8D51802D-0DAE-40F2-8559-7BF63C92E261")]
    public class ExampleClass: IExampleClass {
        public event Action TestEvent;

        public int Test(int mode) {
            var tempEvent = TestEvent;
            if (tempEvent == null) return -1;

            switch (mode) {
                case 0:
                    tempEvent();
                    break;
                case 1:
                    var staThread = new Thread(() => OnTestEvent(tempEvent) );

                    //if (!staThread.TrySetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA)) MessageBox.Show("Failed to set STA thread.");

                    staThread.Start();
                    break;
                case 2:
                    var invoker = new Invoker();
                    var otherThread = new Thread(() => invoker.Invoke((Action)(() => OnTestEvent(tempEvent))));
                    otherThread.Start();
                    break;
                case 3:
                    var timer = new FormsTimer();
                    timer.Tick += (_1, _2) => { timer.Dispose(); OnTestEvent(tempEvent); };
                    timer.Interval = 100;
                    timer.Start();
                    break;
                default:
                    return -2;
            }

            return 1;
        }

        internal static void OnTestEvent(Action func) {
            try { func(); } catch (Exception err) { MessageBox.Show(err.ToString()); }
        }
    }

    internal class Invoker : Control {
        internal Invoker() {
            this.CreateHandle();
        }
    }
}

VB6

Option Explicit

Dim WithEvents DotNetObject As ExampleClass

Private Sub cmdImmediate_Click()
    CallDotNet 0
End Sub

Private Sub cmdOtherThread_Click()
    CallDotNet 1
End Sub

Private Sub cmdSameThread_Click()
    CallDotNet 2
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load()
    Set DotNetObject = New ExampleClass
End Sub

Private Sub CallDotNet(TestMode As Long)
    Dim ReturnValue As Long
    ReturnValue = DotNetObject.Test(TestMode)

    If ReturnValue <> 1 Then MsgBox "Return value is " & ReturnValue
End Sub

Private Sub DotNetObject_TestEvent()
    MsgBox "Event was raised."
End Sub

Answer 1

With multi-threading the calls have to be marshalled. This requires extra information, which is provided by the comInterfaceExternalProxyStub and typelib element. I had experimented with those, but did not find the right combination until now.

Manifest changes (C# DLL)

  <file name="Example.Vb6RegFreeCom.dll" hashalg="SHA1">
    <typelib tlbid="{FABD4158-AFDB-4223-BB09-AB8B45E3816E}" version="1.0" 
             flags="hasdiskimage" helpdir="" />
  </file>

  <comInterfaceExternalProxyStub name="IExampleClassEvents"
    iid="{2669EBDB-16D9-45C8-B0A3-ED2CEE26862C}"
    tlbid="{FABD4158-AFDB-4223-BB09-AB8B45E3816E}"
    proxyStubClsid32="{00020420-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}">
  </comInterfaceExternalProxyStub>
  <comInterfaceExternalProxyStub name="IExampleClass"
    iid="{467EB602-B7C4-4752-824A-B1BC164C7962}"
    tlbid="{FABD4158-AFDB-4223-BB09-AB8B45E3816E}"
    proxyStubClsid32="{00020420-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}">
  </comInterfaceExternalProxyStub>

Once I was on the right track I found several pointers into the right direction. The best description I came across is below. In my example also IDispatch was used.

Excerpt from "Registration-Free Activation of COM Components: A Walkthrough" http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms973913.aspx

These elements provide information that would otherwise be present in the registry. The comInterfaceExternalProxyStub element provides enough information for type library marshalling to occur and it is appropriate for COM interfaces that derive from IDispatch (which includes all Automation interfaces). In these cases ole32.dll provides the external proxy-stub used (i.e., external to the files in the assembly). If your COM components implement only dispatch or dual interfaces then this is the element you should use.