Cannot see object details in debugger (System.__ComObject)

Question

Hi,
I have problem with debugging in Visual Studio Express 2008. I tried to run downloaded example from msdn, which works with Outlook. I would like to work with Outlook folders etc..

Example in VB:

Imports Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook
Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlUserPropertyType


Public Class Form1

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim olApp As Outlook.Application
        Dim objNS As Outlook.NameSpace
        Dim bcmRootFolder As Outlook.Folder
        Dim olFolders As Outlook.Folders
        Dim bcmAccountsFldr As Outlook.Folder
        Dim bcmProjectsFolder As Outlook.Folder
        Dim bcmProjectTasksFolder As Outlook.Folder
        Dim existAcct As Outlook.ContactItem
        Dim newProject As Outlook.TaskItem
        Dim newProjectTask As Outlook.TaskItem
        Dim userProp As Outlook.UserProperty
        Dim myAccount As Outlook.ContactItem


        olApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
        objNS = olApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
        olFolders = objNS.Session.Folders

        bcmRootFolder = olFolders("Business Contact Manager")
        bcmAccountsFldr = bcmRootFolder.Folders(1)

whole example is here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb267920.aspx


Program works fine, but I am not able to debug all objects, that I am using. When I try to look to "bcmRootFolder" or "bcmAccountsFldr" in debugger I will get {System.__ComObject} with no detailed informations.

Screenshot with watch expressions is here:

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/3589/vbdebug.jpg

When I tried run the same code as Macro in Outlook I've got the Outlook.Folder object for "bcmRootFolder" or "bcmAccountsFldr" ... with detailed informations in VB debugger in Outlook.

I tried run the same example in C# Express 2008, VB Express 2008 but with same results. {System.__ComObject} with no detailed informations

I have Outlook 12.0 Object Library in project references.

Can You tell me what I am doing wrong? How can I see detailed informations and objects with exacts types in VB Express or C# Express debugger?

Thank You

Answer 1

Hello cardel,

Thanks for your posts. You are absolutely right. It seems that the Watch window could not evaluate our expressions. To narrow down the issue, please go to Immediate window and type "olFolders.GetFirst()" to see if it gives the detailed information of the folders.

Also, please go to the directory of Visual Studio and find the Debugger Visualizer folder, it is usually located under:
<Drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\Packages\Debugger\Visualizers, could you please list the file name there?

The System._ComObject class is a wrapper for COM Objects in CLR, to get the type name of the object, we could use *as* operator to cast the type (please to this KB article for more information), OR, we could use the Immediate window, type "Microsoft.VisualBasic.Information.TypeName(olFolders)" will return the type name of the olFolders object.

Please have a try and tell me the result.
Best regards,

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Answer 2

1) I typed "bcmRootFolder = olFolders.GetFirst() " into Immediate window and bcmRootFolder was of type {System.__ComObject}

2) I have these files on my disc

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\Packages\Debugger\Visualizers\

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Debugger.DataSetVisualizer.dll (53 248 B)

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\Packages\Debugger\Visualizers\Original
autoexp.cs (10 021 B)
autoexp.dll (37 888 B)
autoexpce.cs (8 280 B)
autoexpce.dll (22 016 B)

3) I tried example with "AS " operator in C# , but I have the same result. I know the type of my object, and if I condition "(bcmRootFolder as Outlook.Folder) != null " was succesfull.

Result is on THIS picture

4) I tried print result of TypeName function

Debug.Print(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Information.TypeName(olFolders))
FoldersClass

Debug.Print(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Information.TypeName(bcmRootFolder))
MAPIFolder

5) I tried cast in VB

Dim bcmCast As Outlook.Folder
bcmCast = CType(bcmRootFolder, Outlook.Folder)

but bcmCast variable had still type {System.__ComObject}

Only way to succesfully debug my application is to write it as macro in Visual Basic Editor of  Outlook, Word, Excel... There I can se all details of objects, Outlook folders etc..

I hope, there will be some better solution

Answer 3

Hello,

Thanks for your feedback. Since there are richful debugging features with Team/Professional edition of Visual Studio, I encourage you to evaluate it in a higher edition of VS. I currently did not have a Expression version. I guess the detailed information is not shown in Express edtion, I'll prove that as soon as possible.

Best regards,

---

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Answer 4

Detailed information is not shown in Express edtion but shown in VB editor in Word, Excel ... ? It is curious...
I don´t think that higher version fix it... But I will try it

Answer 5

Hello cardel,

Just for your information, there is a dynamic view in Visual Studio 2010 which shows the detailed information of the System._ComObject type:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd998308(VS.100).aspx

Thanks

---

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Answer 6

Roahn is right. In VS 2008 and earlier there is no way to see the data members of a System._COMObject. VS 2010 provides more support for this as long as it can find the assemblies that the COM object implements.

See Habib's blog entry about it here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/habibh/archive/2009/09/22/debugging-a-com-object-runtime-callable-wrapper-with-visual-studio-2010.aspx