Primary Interop Assemblies

A primary interop assembly is a unique, vendor-supplied assembly that contains type definitions (as metadata) of types implemented with COM. There can be only one primary interop assembly, which must be signed with a strong name by the publisher of the COM type library. A single primary interop assembly can wrap more than one version of the same type library.

A COM type library that is imported as an assembly and signed by someone other than the publisher of the original type library cannot be a primary interop assembly. Only the publisher of a type library can produce a true primary interop assembly, which becomes the unit of official type definitions for interoperating with the underlying COM types.

Publishers of COM components produce primary interop assemblies and distribute them to developers for use in .NET Framework applications. For publishers, this section provides information about producing primary interop assemblies. For developers, this section describes how to program with primary interop assemblies.

In This Section

• Producing Primary Interop Assemblies
  Describes how to name, generate, customize, and distribute primary interop assemblies. This section is for publishers of COM type libraries.

• Programming with Primary Interop Assemblies
  Describes how to locate, register, and redistribute primary interop assemblies. This section is for developers who program with primary interop assemblies.

Related Sections

• Advanced COM Interoperability
  Provides links to more information about incorporating COM components into your .NET Framework application.

• Exposing COM Components to the .NET Framework
  Describes how to use COM components from .NET-based applications.

• Assemblies in the Common Language Runtime
  Defines the concept of assemblies, which are collections of types and resources that form logical units of functionality.

• Programming with Assemblies
  Describes how to create, sign, and set attributes on assemblies.