ActiveX performance with .NET

javascript:emoticon(':(')Hi all,

I have a .NET-based container application which act as a MapServer hosting several copies of MP ActiveX and then there are client applications accessing the server over .NET remoting. At this point both client and server are being run on the same machine.

For some reason when my map server calls any ActiveX method it is very slow. For example, calling Map.NewMap() may easily block for few seconds! Rendering a simple map with several pushpins takes at least 3-5 seconds.

Is this because of Interop layers around ActiveX or am I doing something really wrong? At this point I am ready to start porting the whole server into VB6 to avoid .NET overhead.

Interestingly that MapPoint 2004 itself does not seem to be that slow, when used interactively.

Any suggestions?

Thank you.
Alex O. :(

After battling for some time with slow performance of MapPoint ActiveX (especially NewMap() and AddPushpin() methods), I have switched to using MapPoint.Application object instead.

Although it is still not the fastest, the whole process of map rendering / adding pushpins / returning map image has become about 2-3 times faster.

Figures! I would assume exactly the opposite due to an inter-process communication overhead, which suppose to be less in case with ActiveX (there is still Interop).

Has anyone else seen this pattern, or is it solely my experience?

Alex O.