[server\__init__.py] Use OleDLL instead of oledll

[moi15moi]

See #735

[junkmd]

I believe this has the same issue as #759 (comment).
The reason the CI is passing is that there are no tests for this function.

I recommend changing POINTER(IUnknown) to c_void_p.

[moi15moi]

I recommend changing POINTER(IUnknown) to c_void_p.

Before doing that, I think it would be worth it to create a test that would cover the RegisterActiveObject and RevokeActiveObject function, but I have no knownledge about comtype server.

So, I'll keep this PR open so that if tests for these functions are added in the future, we can continue the investigation

[junkmd]

Agreed.

Without untangling the server-side implementation, progress on python/cpython#127369 cannot be made.

There is documentation on COM/OLE published under the MIT license.
https://github.com/kraigb/InsideOLE/

If you can allocate resources to this issue and learn something from reading that documentation, please feel free to share it.

[junkmd]

This is what I know about these function and my observations.

These are simple wrapper functions around the GetRunningObjectTable API and the IRunningObjectTable interface ¹.

RegisterActiveObject corresponds IRunningObjectTable::Register.
RevokeActiveObject corresponds IRunningObjectTable::Revoke method.

The tests for IRunningObjectTable is existing in this project.

comtypes/comtypes/test/test_monikers.py

Lines 57 to 70 in 8945446

	class Test_IRunningObjectTable(unittest.TestCase):
	def test_register_and_revoke_item_moniker(self):
	vidctl = CreateObject(msvidctl.MSVidCtl, interface=msvidctl.IMSVidCtl)
	item_id = str(GUID.create_new())
	mon = _create_item_moniker("!", item_id)
	rot = _create_rot()
	bctx = _create_bctx()
	self.assertEqual(mon.IsRunning(bctx, None, None), hresult.S_FALSE)
	dw_reg = rot.Register(ROTFLAGS_ALLOWANYCLIENT, vidctl, mon)
	self.assertEqual(mon.IsRunning(bctx, None, None), hresult.S_OK)
	self.assertEqual(f"!{item_id}", mon.GetDisplayName(bctx, None))
	self.assertEqual(rot.GetObject(mon).QueryInterface(msvidctl.IMSVidCtl), vidctl)
	rot.Revoke(dw_reg)
	self.assertEqual(mon.IsRunning(bctx, None, None), hresult.S_FALSE)

From the changelog, they were added without any tests, and I can’t find any use cases for these functions in the server.

comtypes/CHANGES.txt

Lines 624 to 627 in 8945446

	2008-11-26 Thomas Heller <[email protected]>
	* Added untested code to comtypes.server: RegisterActiveObject()
	and RevokeActiveObject(), plus some flags.

It’s puzzling that these functions are not defined near GetActiveObject and instead reside on the server side.
Additionally, it’s strange that RegisterActiveObject, which is determining which instance is the active object of a class, is not wrapped to accept punk.

Perhaps these functions might be marked as deprecated and adding alternative functions somewhere else in this project.

What do you think?

Footnotes

1. InsideOLE.pdf, p489. ↩

[junkmd]

I’ve figured out the use case for RegisterActiveObject.

When we pass a SomeComObject instance (let’s say it's assigned to the variable c) to this function (RegisterActiveObject(c)), the instance o obtained via o = c.QueryInterface(ISomeComInterface) becomes the active object of that class.
We can then retrieve this instance using p = GetActiveObject(SomeComObject), and the condition o == p holds true.

This behavior is indeed meaningful as a utility function.

I’ve written a test for this and will submit a PR.

(P.S. That said, I think having a version of RegisterActiveObject that accepts punk would also be convenient. In the future, we might see the addition of a RegisterActiveObject on the client side that accepts arguments differing from those on the server side.)

[junkmd]

I opened #776.

[junkmd]

#776 has been merged.

Please rebase this PR’s branch and check the CI pipeline test results.

[moi15moi]

Is there any doc to build source\CppTestSrv?
I tried with Visual Studio, but when I run the command server.exe /RegServer, this assert always fails.

[moi15moi]

Like you said, I changed POINTER(IUnknown) to c_void_p for _RegisterActiveObject.

To know why, see this pipeline where I used POINTER(IUnknown): https://github.com/enthought/comtypes/actions/runs/13022699670/job/36326427772

[junkmd]

Is there any doc to build source\CppTestSrv?

There is no documentation on building the test doubles, but I believe it might work if you replicate the CI pipeline workflow.

comtypes/.github/workflows/autotest.yml

Lines 23 to 29 in d305713

	- name: Set up MSVC
	uses: ilammy/msvc-dev-cmd@v1
	- name: Build and register the OutProc COM server
	run: |
	cd source/CppTestSrv
	nmake /f Makefile
	./server.exe /RegServer

Comparing the Visual Studio setup provided by ilammy/msvc-dev-cmd with your environment might reveal some insights.

[junkmd]

Thanks!