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The wizard can be found in the Add New Item selection -
Can't find MFC ActiveX Wizard in Visual Studio 2019 (to add wrapper class from ActiveX Control)
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simonx
131
Reputation points
I have a C++ MFC application, developed using Visual Studio 2019. I am trying to make use of an ActiveX control supplied by a third party. I need an MFC wrapper class to allow me to interact with the ActiveX control. According to a recent page I found, the necessary wizards for creating such a wrapper class were re-introduced to Visual Studio 2019 (having been previously removed) in version 16.8. I have version 16.11.4 but I can't find them anywhere!
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The following page is called "Add a class from an ActiveX control":
It says there that the MFC wizard for creating an MFC class from an interface in an available ActiveX control, was depreciated in Visual Studio 2017 and would be removed from future versions of Visual Studio. However, I then found this page ("Typelib and ActiveX now supported in MFC Wizards") dated Oct 23rd, 2020:
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/typelib-and-activex-now-supported-in-mfc-wizards/
In that page, the author (a Microsoft C++ Team Blogger) says that Microsoft has changed its mind (listened to feedback) and decided to put them back. The wizards are MFC ActiveX Wizard: Creates an ActiveX control and MFC Typelib Wizard, which allows you to add a class from a typelib.
Just to be clear: I do not want to create an ActiveX control. I want to use an ActiveX control supplied by a third party (i.e. I need a WRAPPER class for an ActiveX control). I believe that one or both of these wizards are what I need. So where are they? How do I use them? I cannot find them anywhere. Apparently they were reintroduced in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.8. I have Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.4.
The blogger urges us to try them out. Well I'd love to. I just wish he'd told us where they are! The obvious first place to look is when you click "Add Class" on the Project menu. But there's nothing like these wizards there. Nor can I find them anywhere else. So where are they? Does anyone know?
All help much appreciated.
Developer technologies | C++
Accepted answer
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RLWA32 49,636 Reputation points2021-11-09T14:12:00.427+00:00 -
simonx 131 Reputation points
2021-11-09T16:58:32.197+00:00 Thank you very much - that's much appreciated. I wasted half the day looking for that.
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RLWA32 49,636 Reputation points
2021-11-09T17:11:11.593+00:00 You're welcome.
Here's some food for thought -- the class created by the MFC Wizard accesses properties and methods using IDispatch. Assuming that your ActiveX control exposes a dual interface consider using the #import directive to create a header file that exposes the contents of the control's type library. This would enable you to access the properties and methods of the ActiveX control through its vtable. ATL's MFC compatible smart pointer classes CComPtr and CComQIPtr are well suited for this purpose.
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Brian Kasper 0 Reputation points2023-11-13T18:32:50.04+00:00 I'm using Visual Studio Professional 2019 version 16.11.31 and I don't see any "MFC" entries in the Add New Item dialogs at all:
If I search for "MFC", no results are returned:
Do I need to do something to re-enable this functionality?
Thanks!
-Brian
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RLWA32 49,636 Reputation points
2023-11-13T21:18:13.1666667+00:00 @Brian Kasper, When you installed the VS2019 Desktop Development for C++ workload did you check the box for MFC?
Visual Studio Installer -
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Brian Kasper 0 Reputation points
2023-11-14T01:31:41.9+00:00 Until you asked that question, I was quite sure I did, because I do a lot of development with MFC, but I'll check that and get back to you. Thanks for responding!
-Brian
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RLWA32 49,636 Reputation points
2023-11-14T01:52:34.5633333+00:00 @Brian Kasper, Also, make sure you are working with an MFC project.
If you try to "Add New Item" to a non-MFC project the resultant dialog will NOT include MFC related choices.
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Brian Kasper 0 Reputation points
2023-11-14T12:37:30.1833333+00:00 Yes, I do have MFC support installed. If I use the Visual Studio Installer to display the "Individual Components" installed for my MVS2019 installation, "C++ MFC for latest v142 build tools (x86 & x64) is checked. Unfortunately, for some reason I can't find my original post so I can make sure I'm answering that question fully. Thanks again for getting back to me -- I'll do some more digging on my end and submit a new question.
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Brian Kasper 0 Reputation points
2023-11-14T12:41:58.7066667+00:00 OK, I found my original question. I'm trying to add an MFC class to a static link library and there's no obvious way to add MFC support to a static library project, so that must be the issue. Is it possible to enable MFC support for a static link library and then add, for example, a CDialog-derived class to that library?
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RLWA32 49,636 Reputation points
2023-11-14T13:01:36.92+00:00 Please start a new question and provide the pertinent details about what you are attempting.
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