C# integration

As many of you know DOORS has a COM interface. Some use it via VBS, other via Java.
Today I will show you how to make a very simple application with C#.

VBS example

Let's see very simple VBS example:

Set DOORSObj = CreateObject("DOORS.Application")

DOORSObj.runStr ("ack ""hello""")

It's so simple to call a DXL script from VBS!

C# Example

Well C# is little bit more complex than VBS. But once all steps are done it is very easy to use it.

CLR Assembly

First you need to create a .NET common language runtime (CLR) assembly. I used TlbImp.exe. This converts type definitions found in COM type library into equivalent definitions in CLR assembly.
You can find DOORS type library in DOORS bin folder:

C:\>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools\x64\TlbImp.exe" "c:\Program Files\IBM\Rational\DOORS\9.6\bin\doors.tlb"

Above created a DOORSCOMLib.dll in c:\.

Once you have this dll you can simply add it to your C# project.

1. Select References
2. Add Referece...
3. Browse to the location where is your DOORSCOMLib.dll.
4. Once imported right-click on DOORSCOMLib and see its properties
5. Set "Embed Interop Types" to false.

Embed Interop Types set to false

Now you can use this library in your code.

DOORSCOMLib interface

DOORSCOMLib has a following interfaces:

IDoorsDXL lets you run DXL:

• void runDXL(string)
• void runFile(string) 
• string restult()

IDoorsStatus enables checking DOORS session status:

• string clientVersion
• string clientStatus (1 user logged in, 0 DOORS started but user not logged)

Usage

Usage of DOORSCOMLib is very simple; simply declare a required interface and use it.

IDoorsStatus doorsStatus = Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(DOORSClass)) as IDoorsStatus;

IDoorsDXL doorsDXL = Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(DOORSClass)) as IDoorsDXL;

Here is a simple "Hello Word" application illustrating how to use those interfaces:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using DOORSCOMLib;

namespace HelloCOM
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            IDoorsStatus doorsStatus = null;
            doorsStatus = Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(DOORSClass)) as IDoorsStatus;
            if (doorsStatus == null) {
                Console.WriteLine("Null instance");
                return;
            }

            // the session is up, but user might not be logged in
            int trycount = 0;
            while (doorsStatus.clientState != 1 && trycount < 30)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("DOORS not logged in yet");
                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(2000);
                ++trycount;
            }

            // we have a session
            Console.WriteLine("DOORS version " + doorsStatus.clientVersion);

            IDoorsDXL doors = Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(DOORSCOMLib.DOORSClass)) as IDoorsDXL;

            if (doors != null) {
                doors.runStr("ack \"hello from C# !\"");
            }
        }
    }
}

This should start a DOORS session (if not already started) and display a "hello from C# !" message.

Update

In Visual Studio 2010 or 2013 you can simply added doors.tlb to the references and you can skip creating CLR Assembly.