TlbCodeGenerator is a code generator for COM libraries. Based on the type library information, bindings for many COM based libraries can be created automaticly.

Installation

Currently the maven plugin is not published to maven central, so it needs to be installed into the local repository. To do this, run:

mvn install

in the root folder of the checkout of TlbCodeGenerator.

Please note: This plugin uses the typelibrary parser, that is build into the Windows COM subsystem by directly calling into the native libraries. It won't work on non-windows platforms!

Usage

The basic idea is, that per bound COM library one maven project is created. This is for example reflected in the option to derive the version of the type library from the project version.

The type library can be used/referenced in two ways:

• by specifying the file that holds the typelibrary or
• by specifying the triplet: GUID/major/minor

The second options requires the COm library to be correctly registered in the system.

Listing

A list of all installed libraries can be generated by calling the list mojo:

mvn eu.doppel_helix.jna.tlbcodegenerator:TlbCodeGenerator:list

This will generate a list with columns:

• GUID
• Major verion
• Minor version
• Name of the type library (internal)
• User visible name of the type library

The task can be called without a project.

Generation

The complete sources for the following samples can be found here:

https://github.com/matthiasblaesing/COMTypelibraries

The first sample creates bindings for "OLE Automation (Ver 2.0)".

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    
    <parent>
        <groupId>eu.doppel_helix.jna.tlb</groupId>
        <artifactId>parent</artifactId>
        <version>1.1</version>
    </parent>
    
    <artifactId>stdole2</artifactId>
    <version>2.0.1</version>
    <packaging>jar</packaging>
    
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>eu.doppel_helix.jna.tlbcodegenerator</groupId>
                <artifactId>TlbCodeGenerator</artifactId>
                <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
                <configuration>
                    <guid>{00020430-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}</guid>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

The major and minor version of the type library are 2 and 0. In this sample the values are derived from the first two components of the project version.

In this case the third part of the version string denotes the revision of the bindings.

The only configuration in this case is the specification of the GUID of the library that is to be bound.

Invoking the generate mojo will generate the sources in the project:

mvn eu.doppel_helix.jna.tlbcodegenerator:TlbCodeGenerator:generate

Existing source will be overwritten without warning.

The plugin does not bind to any maven lifecycle phase, so it is only executed if explicitly called.

Dependencies

COM type libraries can depend on each other. For example the "OLE Automation (Ver 2.0)" library is a pre-requisite for the "Windows Image Acquisition Automation" library. To enable resolving dependencies, this plugin uses a combination of maven depdencies and additional meta-data.

Each generated type library created by this plugin contains two files in the META-INF/typelib folder. Both files are java property files:

• PACKAGE_NAME.info.properties:

  • GUID
  • Major version
  • Minor version
  • Native version
  • package name

• PACKAGE_NAME.types.properties: This file mapps CLSIDs to java class names

The bindings of WIA looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    
    <parent>
        <groupId>eu.doppel_helix.jna.tlb</groupId>
        <artifactId>parent</artifactId>
        <version>1.1</version>
    </parent>
    
    <artifactId>wia1</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.1</version>
    <packaging>jar</packaging>
    
    <description>Windows Image Acquisition Automation</description>
    
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>eu.doppel_helix.jna.tlb</groupId>
            <artifactId>stdole2</artifactId>
            <version>2.0.1</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>eu.doppel_helix.jna.tlbcodegenerator</groupId>
                <artifactId>TlbCodeGenerator</artifactId>
                <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
                <configuration>
                    <file>c:/windows/system32/wiaaut.dll</file>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

This file shows two thinks:

• demonstrate dependency
• building bindings from a typelibrary file

As in the simple case, the bindings are generated by invoking:

mvn eu.doppel_helix.jna.tlbcodegenerator:TlbCodeGenerator:generate