Although DLL only allows exporting plain “C” functions, object-oriented methodology is employed during the interface design. All functions operate on a special object called the barcode object. The object is identified by a 32-bit interger type called HANDLE. A HANDLE is defined as a void* pointer in C language, and a Long in classic Visual Basic.

A typical application creates the barcode object through function CreateBarcodeObject and retrieves the handle to the object. Subsequently it calls various functions to manipulate the object properties. The function mbxExportImage is used to retrieve the barcode image renderings. After the application finishes using the object, it calls the function DestroyBarcodeObject to release all resources allocted to the object.