Using VB.NET Class library in VBA

[hammer]

I built a Class Library named PM-Activa.dll in Visual Studio.Net using VB.NET. It works fine from within another windows application built in Visual studio.Net.

Q: How can I use it from a VBA module (Excel or Access)?
(I use Access 2000 of Excel 2000 and Windows XP Pro)
When i try to reference the file PM-Activa.ddl i get a message saying that i can't put a reference to the specified file?

[Edneeis]

You'd have to convert it into a COM wrapper. I'm not sure of everything you have to do but the upgrade wizard adds this to the start of the class:
<System.Runtime.InteropServices.ProgId("cDay_NET.cDay")> _
Public Class cDay

[hammer]

I understand that i have to convert it into a COM (callable?) wrapper. I searched at MSDN for more information. There was a lot of it there. Mostly about using older COM components in VB.NET. But i still have no idea of what i should do. What actions should i take with the .dll up to referencing it from within VBA?

[Cander]

I dont know much about it, but you might want to look into VSA which is, I believe, the new thing to replace VBA and has .NET support so it can fully utilize .NET. I dont know much about it though, just bits and pieces Ive seen mentioned in .NET magazine.

[hammer]

Surprisingly I found out myself. The job can simply be done using the regasm.exe program which part of the .Net Framework Tools.

From the command prompt you use this syntax:
regasm AssemblyPath /tlb:FileName.tlb

When the dll file is PM_Activa.dll like in my case you use:
regasm PM_Activa.dll /tlb:PM_Activa.tlb
With this program both are registered on your computer. Now you can choose this from the list of references in your VBA program. For instance Access or Excel.



I hope anyone else can use it to convert you VBA applications step by step into VB.NET.