Exposing a C++ API to C#
- by Siyfion
So what I have is a C++ API contained within a *.dll and I want to use a C# application to call methods within the API.
So far I have created a C++ / CLR project that includes the native C++ API and managed to create a "bridge" class that looks a bit like the following:
ManagedBridge.h
namespace ManagedAPIWrapper
{
public ref class Bridge
{
public:
int bridge_test(void);
int bridge_test2(api_struct* temp);
}
}
ManagedBridge.cpp
int Bridge::bridge_test(void)
{
return test();
}
int Bridge::bridge_test2(api_struct* temp)
{
return test2(temp);
}
I also have a C# application that has a reference to the C++/CLR "Bridge.dll" and then uses the methods contained within. I have a number of problems with this:
I can't figure out how to call bridge_test2 within the C# program, as it has no knowledge of what a api_struct actually is. I know that I need to marshal the object somewhere, but do I do it in the C# program or the C++/CLR bridge?
This seems like a very long-winded way of exposing all of the methods in the API, is there not an easier way that I'm missing out? (That doesn't use P/Invoke!)
