The COM and COM+ Programming Primer

Besides being one of the most readable and understandable guides to the Microsoft Component Object Model (COM) (and related technologies) ever written, Alan Gordon's The COM and COM+ Programming Primer also gives today's COM developer an up-to-the-minute guide to COM+, including excellent hands-on demonstrations of installing and deploying COM+ objects.

The best thing about this text has to be the author's extremely engaging writing style and clear explanations of thorny COM concepts, like interfaces, GUIDs, and other nuts-and-bolts issues that help make Microsoft's component standard tough-going for beginners. An experienced educator, the author makes use of clear examples and analogies--for instance, describing COM as a "software bus" where components can be shared across applications and projects. If you've been baffled by other books on COM, this book's easygoing presentation may do the trick. It also helps that the text traces each slippery term in the Microsoft COM marketing arsenal. It shows how labels like "OLE," "COM," and "ActiveX" have changed over the years.

After a comprehensive tour of the basics, The COM and COM+ Programming Primer turns toward distributed COM (DCOM) and then onto today's COM+. Several useful tutorials explain building COM objects using Visual C++, including using ATL wizards. When it comes to COM+, the text shows how built-in transactions, object pooling, and queued components can be used to create more scalable and reliable distributed applications. With plenty of screenshots detailing how to install and configure COM+ components, this book will let readers get going with COM+ in their own projects.

The COM and COM+ Programming Primer shows how basic COM has evolved into today's COM+ standard--not by getting rid of the basics, but by enhancing an already capable component standard with new middle-tier resources. This title provides an excellent introduction to basic COM for anyone new to this standard, and provides the latest on COM+--which will help more experienced readers take their skills to the next level. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• COM overview, advantages of components, COM as a "software bus," COM+ basics, and ActiveX and OLE
• Object design with COM
• Interfaces and objects
• Basic COM objects with Visual C++
• Using the Active Template Library (ATL)
• In-process and out-of-process servers
• OLE automation basics
• COM callbacks and connectable objects
• Threading (single, multiple, and thread-neutral apartments)
• Distributed COM (DCOM)
• COM+ architecture and system services
• COM+ transactions, object pooling, and queued components
• Three-tiered applications in Windows Distributed interNet Architecture (DNA)
• Tutorials for developing and deploying COM+ components
• Interception
• COM+ events