How to create an AxHost solely in code [C#]

Question

I'm using a COM Wrapper to interact with Windows Media Player.

The it is using an AxHost to somehow wrap the player, for me it's all just magic under the hood^^

The AxHost.AttachInterfaces looks like this

    protected override void AttachInterfaces() 
    {
        try 
        {   
            //Get the IOleObject for Windows Media Player.
            IOleObject oleObject = this.GetOcx() as IOleObject;

            //Set the Client Site for the WMP control.
            oleObject.SetClientSite(this as IOleClientSite);

            Player = this.GetOcx() as WMPLib.WindowsMediaPlayer; 
...

Everything is working find as long as I host this AxHost in a Windows Forms control. But I can't hook up the events in a constructor.

This for example doesn't work:

    public WMPMediaRating()
    {
        var remote = new WMPRemote.RemotedWindowsMediaPlayer();
        _WMP = remote.Player;

        _WMP.MediaChange += new _WMPOCXEvents_MediaChangeEventHandler(_WMP_MediaChange);
    }

remote.Player is always null and the program crashes with a NullReferencesException.

The code in AttachInterfaces() is somehow only executed after the Form has been drawn, or after everything else is done.

I tried calling AttachInterfaces() by hand, but that didn't work either because GetOcx() returns nothing.

---

So how can I instantiate my AxHost-inherited control without Windows Forms, to use it for example in a console application?

Answer 1

FYI: nobody stops you from using a hidden window in your console application.

You'll not be able to host the media player in a non-windows application - it requires hosting. If you want to play some music you can use the Media Graphs to create a graph that renders (plays) your music file - it'll not require any extra hosting.