COM Manifest Studio

Program Purpose:

COMManifestStudio is a specialized tool designed for the efficient management of Registration-Free Component Object Model (COM) components, specifically OCX and DLL files, which are used in isolated applications. The primary function of this software is to create .manifest project files tailored for selected COM/DLL components. This tool is developed using DataFlex, a highly efficient programming language known for its data handling capabilities.

Important Note: Compiling the program as a 32-bit application is crucial. Failure to do so may lead to ineffective communication with the COM components, resulting in errors or malfunctions in the application. Ensuring that the correct compilation settings are in place will promote smooth operation and prevent potential issues.

The workspace of COMManifestStudio leverages various additional libraries that are hosted on NilsSve's GitHub page. You do not need to manage them by hand — setup.bat fetches them for you, as described below.

Setup after cloning

The libraries this workspace uses (DigitalCert, Filesystem, DUF, DFAbout, RDCToolsLib, vwin32fh) are not stored in this repository (they are gitignored). Run setup.bat once from the repository root and it provides them, behaving differently by machine so one arrangement serves both maintainer and user:

• On a machine with the shared RDC library pool next door (a sibling ..\Libraries carrying the marker file .rdc-library-pool), it makes Libraries\ a junction to that pool — one shared, editable copy of every library.
• Otherwise it clones the six libraries into this workspace's own Libraries\ folder: isolated, self-contained, and it never writes anywhere outside this workspace. (DUF comes from the current Library-DUF repo; the old DbUpdateFramework repo is superseded by it.)

It also runs skip-local-data.cmd so your local Data\ database changes stay on your machine. Either way Libraries\ is local-only and never committed — re-run setup.bat any time it looks missing or out of date. (Because Libraries\ may be a junction, do not run git clean -x here.)