D:\swb\SPY++.zip

======================================================================== DYNAMIC LINK LIBRARY : ManagedSpyLib Project Overview ======================================================================== ManagedSpyLib.vcproj ManagedSpyLib is a library that exposes one class called ControlProxy. A ControlProxy represents a System.Windows.Forms.Control in another process. So, in other words, if you have a ControlProxy in process A, it represents, say, a System.Windows.Forms.Button in process B. The ControlProxy class allows you to retrieve property values and sync on events. Note that throughout the code and comments, we refer to process A as the "spying process" and process B as the "spied process". AssemblyInfo.cpp This file contains assembly attribute information such as Company name and version. Commands.cpp Commands.h Commands contains handlers for custom window messages. The way ManagedSpyLib works is that when you want to create a ControlProxy, get/set values, the library turns on a window hook in the destination process. The commands class is what both sends these messages and receives them in the spied-on process. A confusing thing here is that part of the class is executing in the spying process and other parts execute in the spied process. I've tried to annotate these as best I could. ControlProxy.h ControlProxy.cpp A ControlProxy is created inside the spied process and sent back to the spying process via binary serialization (therefore ControlProxy is fully serializable). Once deserialized on the spying process side, when you get or set values, the proxy will send window messages to get/set values. A ControlProxy is also left in a cache in the spied process to listen on events. When an event is fired in the spied process, the ControlProxy will send a window message back to the listening process. A current limitation is that ControlProxy events only supports one listening process. This can be fixed with a little sweat. CustomEventArgs.h This contains a binary serializable version of MouseEventArgs. Note that all EventArgs must be binary serializable or else they will not be sent to the event listener of the ControlProxy. Mem.h Mem.cpp The Mem files define the use of memory mapped files. These are used to pass information between the spying and spied process. Messages.h This lists all of the custom window messages we use PropertyDescriptorProxy.h PropertyDescriptorProxy.cpp We implement ICustomTypeDescriptor on ControlProxy. This allows users to call TypeDescriptor.GetProperties on a ControlProxy and set/get property values as if it were the actual control. This fucntionality is used in the ManagedSpy application by putting the ControlProxy in the PropertyGrid (The winforms propertygrid will automatically query ICustomTypeDescriptor). PropertyDescriptorProxy is a custom written PropertyDescriptor used in our ICustomTypeDescriptor implementation. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Other notes: Some of the contents in Commands could be placed in ControlProxy to make things a bit clearer. Another option is to use .Net remoting instead of memory mapped files. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////