ASXCollection.dll is a replacement for the VBA collection class that was used in Visual Basic 6 (VB6) and contains functions, properties and methods that can be used.when operating on collections that are used by CATSWeb (such as colHTML).

• While VB.NET also has a Collection object type (Microsoft.VisualBasic.Collection), it is incompatible with the VB6 VBA.Collection type.
  • .NET collections do not expose the collection keys.
  • .NET collections are 0 based. VBA Collections are 1 based.
  • Passing a VBA collection to .NET will cause the following error.
    An unhandled exception of type 'System.InvalidCastException' occurred in ApplicationName.exe.
    Additional information: Unable to cast object of type 'Microsoft.VisualBasic.Collection' to type 'VBA.Collection'.
  • The life cycle of Microsoft VB6 support is coming to an end, and AssurX could not depend upon the continued availability of the VBA Collection object type.
    
    
• CATSWeb V6 code relied heavily on VB6 VBA collections (such as colHTML), and modifications to the core code needed to be kept to a minimum to reduce the risk of injecting bugs during the port to .NET.
  • To remain backward compatible with existing VB6 code (including custom ActiveX DLLs), a design decision was made to develop an AssurX collection equivalent (ASXCollection.dll) that provides all of the existing functionality of VBA and Microsoft.VisualBasic collections.
  • The ASXCollection.dll extends the collection functionality with additional methods and properties.
    
    
• Any new Visual Basic .NET code written to interface with CATSWeb, requires the use of the ASXCollection class, and a reference must be added to it within your .NET Class project. The CATSWeb API uses the ASXCollection class as a replacement for the VBA collection class.
  
  
• ASXCollection Constructor:
  1. Defaults to a 1-based collection (similar to a VBA Collection).
     Dim tstASXCol As New ASXCollection.ASXCollection
     
  2. Uses the value in ‘nBaseType’ as the base (similar to a .NET collection).
     Dim nBaseType as Integer = 0
     Dim tstASXCol = New ASXCollection.ASXCollection(nBaseType)
  
  
• ASXCollection Properties and Examples:
  1. Count: Gets the number of collection items
     Dim tstASXCol As New ASXCollection.ASXCollection
     Dim nCnt As Integer
     Dim strKey As String = "Text3" + "_EDTBL"
     Dim strValue As String = "False"
     tstASXCol.Add(strValue, strKey)
     nCnt = tstASXCol.Count
     
     
• ASXCollection Methods and Examples:
  1. Add: Add items to the collection:
     • Using a string key:
       Dim strKey As String = "Text3" + "_EDTBL"
       Dim strValue As String = "False"
       tstASXCol.Add(strValue, strKey)
     • Dim strValue As String = "False"
       tstASXCol.Add(strValue)
       
  2. Remove: Remove items from the collection:
     • Using a string key:
       Dim strKey As String = "Text3" + "_EDTBL"
       tstASXCol.Remove(strKey)
     • Using an index:
       Dim nIndx As Integer = 6
       tstASXCol.Remove(nIndx)
       
  3. Item: Retrieve items from the collection:
     • Using an index:
       Dim objItem As String = vbEmpty
       Dim nIndx As Integer
       nIndx = 6
       objItem = tstASXCol.Item(nIndx)
     • Using a string key:
       Dim objItem As String = vbEmpty
       Dim strKey As String = "Text3"
       objItem = tstASXCol.Item(strKey)
       
  4. Detemine if a string key exists within the collection:
     Dim strKey As String = "Text3" + "_EDTBL"
     Dim bResult as Boolean = false
     bResult = tstASXCol.Contains(strKey)
     If bResult = True then
     End If

See the CATSWeb ASXCollection Installation And User Guide document for further details on ASXCollection installation and usage.