Building COM Applications

Windows DNA (Distributed InterNet Applications Architecture) represents Microsoft view of Multi-tier architectures that are completely based upon the Component Object Model (COM). COM denotes a gluing technology that helps to connect different islands of code together. It isolates developers from many system-specific details such as the location of services and the programming languages used to build clients or servers. Because COM is a fundamental layer of the Win32 platform, developers building Windows (DNA) applications inevitably should leverage COM for their own applications. It is the goal of the tutorial to present the fundamental concepts behind Microsoft COM. C++ examples will be used to illustrate programming with Microsoft COM. Advanced COM-based and COM-related technologies such as Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) and Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ) are introduced. The tutorial will also give a short overview of COM+, the new version of COM included in Windows 2000. It will also take a look at SOAP, the XML-based protocol that allows remote method invocations on top of HTTP. Attendees should be familiar with object-oriented programming, especially using C++.