1. Connectors Guide
  2. COM Interoperability

COM Interoperability

COM enables developers to build systems by assembling reusable components from different vendors. COM provides logic and data sharing among disparate applications. COM is a binary interoperability specification and communication convention for software components. It is a single-vendor technology that is available on Microsoft platforms only. Since most independent software components are also self-contained, they are frequently called objects or servers.

Being a binary specification, COM is inherently independent of programming languages. Unlike software libraries or DLLs, which are compiled to specific language or linkage conventions, COM-based software components are created ready to work with any COM client. For example, a Visual C++ application can use COM objects created in Visual Basic, or a VBScript within an intranet web page to control a COM object written in MicroFocus COBOL.

The COM connector provides these two types of services on the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne server:

  • Business function execution.

    These chapters discuss business function execution:

    • Understanding JD Edwards EnterpriseOne COM Server.

    • Deploying the COM Server for Business Functions.

    • Using COM Transactions.

  • Asynchronous event notifications and introspection operations.

    The chapter, Using COM Connector Events - Guaranteed Events, discusses event notifications and introspection operations.

The COM connector provides a mechanism for running business functions on the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne server. You use the GenCOM utility on the Microsoft Windows client to generate wrappers for business function objects. The wrappers can be deployed on any machine. You can develop application code for the generated wrappers using Visual Basic (VB) or C++. Once the objects change in the package, the connector communicates with the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne server for login, logoff, transactions, and for each business function execution call. Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) enables COM objects in a distributed environment. COM+ transactions enables COM applications and third-party applications to take part in distributed transactions.

The COM connector supports subscribe and publish functionality for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne events.