COM Programming by Example: Using MFC, ActiveX, ATL, ADO, and COM+

Topic: Windows Programming

Author: John E. Swanke

Key Benefits:

Implement client/server applications with ease with this example oriented approach to the details and implementation of COM technology in network applications.

If there was ever a subject that lent itself to examples, COM is it! None of the APIs, configuration files, classes, wizards, or helper applications of COM can stand alone you need an example of how to use them together in order to know how to do anything. This book will do for COM what the author's recent MFC books have done to teach that technology. You get a quick but thorough overview of COM technology, and dozens of real-life examples that can be used to accomplish virtually all of the requirements of a COM project.

COM Basics are addressed succinctly in the first three chapters. You will learn how to:

COM Examples provided in this book will enable you to implement this client/server standard with a minimum of effort whether you are a COM novice or an old hand. They demonstrate how to:

COM Project Building Blocks are provided on the companion CD-ROM along with a special utility, the authors own SampleWizard, that will interactively insert the examples into your applications.

John E. Swanke has worked with COM since its inception. He also has over six years experience with Visual C++ and MFC creating CAD systems, network management and computer telephony applications. He is an accomplished author having written articles on topics that range from reverse engineering to portability issues. John successfully established his method of teaching by example method with two MFC titles published in 1999: Visual C++ MFC Programming by Example and VC++ MFC Extensions by Example. He believes in the adage that an example is worth a kilobyte i.e. each illustrative example is worth four or five times the amount of text it would take to illustrate the same technology. John is currently a program developer at NeuVis, Inc. in Shelton, CT and can be reached at .

• Use MFC, ActiveX, ATL, ADO and COM+ to develop COM applications
  • Use the COM API to create a COM object.
  • Prepare your DLL or EXE so the COM API can access the class objects inside.
  • Exchange data with your COM objects by passing arguments in any function call, or implementing automatic serialization and reconstruction of your data through a network port.
  • Address other details of COM implementation including deriving the functionality of another COM object in your own, and security matters.
  • Implement COM+ and Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) to permit massive scaling.
  • Create and access COM objects using an entire range of COM techniques including C++, MFC, ATL, Visual Basic, and Visual J++.
  • Use COM to automatically send data between your client and the COM server.
  • Write a COM+ object that will engage the event server provided by Windows 2000.
  • Use Microsoft's Active Data Objects (ADO) library to access a database.