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Implementing IUnknown in C++

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Applies to: Outlook 2013 | Outlook 2016

Implementing the IUnknown::QueryInterface, IUnknown::AddRef, and IUnknown::Release methods of the IUnknown interface in C++ is fairly simple. After some standard validation of the parameters that are passed in, an implementation of QueryInterface checks the identifier of the requested interface against the list of supported interfaces. If the requested identifier is among those supported, AddRef is called and the this pointer is returned. If the requested identifier is not on the supported list, the output pointer is set to NULL and the MAPI_E_INTERFACE_NOT_SUPPORTED value is returned.

The following code example shows how you can implement QueryInterface in C++ for a status object, an object that is a subclass of the IMAPIStatus : IMAPIProp interface. IMAPIStatus inherits from IUnknown through IMAPIProp : IUnknown. Therefore, if a caller asks for any of these interfaces, the this pointer can be returned because the interfaces are related through inheritance.

HRESULT CMyMAPIObject::QueryInterface (REFIID   riid,
                                       LPVOID * ppvObj)
{
    // Always set out parameter to NULL, validating it first.
    if (!ppvObj)
        return E_INVALIDARG;
    *ppvObj = NULL;
    if (riid == IID_IUnknown || riid == IID_IMAPIProp ||
        riid == IID_IMAPIStatus)
    {
        // Increment the reference count and return the pointer.
        *ppvObj = (LPVOID)this;
        AddRef();
        return NOERROR;
    }
    return E_NOINTERFACE;
}

The following code example shows how to implement the AddRef and Release methods for the CMyMAPIObject object. Because implementing AddRef and Release is straightforward, many service providers choose to implement them inline. The calls to the Win32 functions InterlockedIncrement and InterlockedDecrement ensure thread safety. The memory for the object is freed by the destructor, which is called when the Release method deletes the object.

ULONG CMyMAPIObject::AddRef()
{
    InterlockedIncrement(m_cRef);
    return m_cRef;
}
ULONG CMyMAPIObject::Release()
{
    // Decrement the object's internal counter.
    ULONG ulRefCount = InterlockedDecrement(m_cRef);
    if (0 == m_cRef)
    {
        delete this;
    }
    return ulRefCount;
}

See also