C++Builder 5 Developers Guide

by Paul Gustavson

IN THIS CHAPTER

• COM Fundamentals

• Creating and Using COM Interfaces

• Adding Automation

• Adding Event Sinks

• Writing the COM Server

• ActiveX Controls

• Recommended Resources

The Component Object Model (COM) is an object-oriented framework for integrating binary software components . The COM supports reuse and the interoperability of objects regardless of the language in which the software was developed. COM-based technologies include COM servers and clients , ActiveX controls, object linking and embedding (OLE), and Automation. The primary platform for COM is Windows, but it also can be supported with other platforms such as Unix ”although not as easily.

In this chapter, we'll examine the capabilities provided by COM and COM-based technologies, and how it is used with C++Builder. The breadth and depth that COM provides is extremely vast, therefore, we will only be able to scratch the surface on COM programming with C++Builder. However, COM is a powerful mechanism that is often under utilized. The goal of this chapter is to equip you with the essentials so that your C++Builder applications can benefit from COM.