A problem with custom actions

[Amit]

Hi,
I have a problem with executing Custom Action.

Here's what I do.

When I install an application, for the first time
I provide some dialg boxes which are used to enter some information,
Now using this information (values of the properties associated with
the controls), I execute a custom action (Executables, which upgrades
the database)
Also while installing I store the values for server name and database
name in the registry.

Now I want to provide an upgrade option.

For this I don't want any of the users to enter same information,
he/she entered during the installation.
Since I have to get the values from the registry, I have written
another CA which will call a function in a vc dll which I've written
and will give me the values from the registry. so that I can call the
same old custom action to upgrade the database usign the same
properties.

The custom action which I call looks like this:

void dllname::functionname(inout STRING=[PROPERTY1],....)
and is "Immediate Custom Action"

where [PROPERTY1] etc are the properties associated with the controls.

Now my dll gets executed but the values are not assigned to the
properties specified in the custom action.

I do not know what is the problem. Is the datatype used in the custom
action and vs dll mismatching? I've tried using LPSTR and BSTR in the
vc dll as the datatype.