The Component Object Model (COM) has become the foundation of new Windows technologies. A good understanding of COM is vital to all Windows programmers. This course gives you insight into the design philosophies and concepts underlying COM. A significant portion of the class uses C++ without any frameworks to provide you with a clear understanding of COM infrastructure. MFC (Microsoft Foundation Class) and ATL (ActiveX Template Library) support for COM are also discussed in the class. The emphasis in this class is to introduce the rationale for various COM techniques to prepare you for other classes which go into more detail on using a specific framework like MFC or ATL.

You will implement a COM object in a variety of ways including raw C++, MFC and ATL. At the end of the class you will be able to understand the tradeoffs involved in choosing one of these frameworks. Extensive pictures, code examples and labs reinforce the concepts. The class concludes with a look at the future of COM including a discussion of Microsoft Transaction Server and COM+ a runtime infrastructure available next year which should considerably simplify COM development.

This class has many optional modules and can be tailored to meet a particular audience.

COM/COM+ Training Prerequisites

This class requires prior programming experience in C++. Exposure to Windows/MFC programming is desirable.

COM/COM+ Training Course duration

5 Days

COM/COM+ Training Course outline

• COM overview and rationale
• COM clients - concepts, interfaces, IUnknown, class factories
• COM Servers - Implementing a inprocess server (multiple vs. nested inheritence)
• Interface Definition Language (IDL)
• COM Servers - Implementing a Local Server, Standard and Custom marshalling
• Aggregation and Containment
• Automation & Type Libraries, dual interfaces
• Persistence , IPersistXXX interfaces
• Structured storage
• MultiThreading & COM, apartments, threading models
• COM & MFC
• COM & ATL
• Distributed COM
• Microsoft Transaction Server
• COM futures - COM+