Overview of Error Logging

To give applications maximum flexibility in handling errors, DES uses a callback mechanism. Your application implements a method for logging an error. At run time, if an error occurs, DES calls the method you have provided. The method takes parameters that describe the error. What the method does with this information is up to you. (It should return as quickly as possible, however, or it might interfere with the execution of the program.)

The error logging callback method is contained in a COM interface, IAMErrorLog. Your application must implement this interface. Like all COM interfaces, IAMErrorLog inherits the IUnknown interface, so your application must implement that as well.

You have several choices for implementing these COM interfaces. You can use the Active Template Library (ATL), which provides stock implementations of the IUnknown methods. DirectShow also provides a C++ base class, CUnknown, that makes it easy to implement a COM interface. For information on using CUnknown, see How to Implement IUnknown.

The sample code in this article defines a self-contained C++ class, which implements both IUnknown and IAMErrorLog. The result is not a true COM object, because it does not support CoCreateInstance. However, this approach is adequate for the purpose of the example.