User`s guide

Overview of Internal Processes
The process of creating an Excel Buildercomponentiscompletely automatic
from a user p oint of v iew. You specify a list of M-files to process and a few
additional pieces of information, such as the component name, the class
names, and the version number. The build process involves the following
steps:
1 “Code G ene ration” on page A-3
2 “Interface Definition Creation” on p age A-3
3 “C++ Compilation” on page A-4
4 “Linking and Resource Binding” on page A-4
5 “Component Registration” on page A-4
Code Generation
The first step in the build proces s generates all source code and other
supporting files needed to create the component. It also creates the main
source file (
mycomponent_dll.cpp) con ta ining t he im plementation of each
exported function of the DLL. The compiler additionally produces an Interface
Description Language (IDL) file (
mycomponent_idl.idl), containing the
specifications for the component’s type library, interface, and class, with
associated GUIDs. (GUID is an acronym for Globally Unique Identifier, a
128-bit integer guaranteed always to be unique.)
Created next are the C++ class definition and implementation files
(
myclass_com.hpp and myclass_com.cpp). In addition to these source
files, the compiler generates a DLL exports file (
mycomponent.def), a
resource script (
mycomponent.rc), and a Component Technology File
(
mycomponent.ctf). See the MATLAB Compiler d ocumentation for a
discussion of
ctf files.
Interface Definition Creation
ThesecondstepofthebuildprocessinvokestheIDLcompilerontheIDLfile
generated in step 1 (
mycomponent_idl.idl), creating the interface header
file (
mycomponent_idl.h) , the interfa ce GUID file (mycomponent_idl_i.c),
and the component type library file (
mycomponent_idl.tlb). The interface
header file contains type definitions and function declarations based on the
A-3