IDL Export Bridge

The IDL Export Bridge technology lets you use IDL objects in COM and Java applications. For a general overview of this technology, see Exporting IDL Objects.

Note
The Export Bridge technology is installed as part of IDL. For requirements, see Running the Assistant.

With the Export Bridge, interaction with IDL is through native Java and COM wrapper objects that are generated for each IDL object with which client applications want to interact. The wrapper objects manage all aspects of IDL loading, initialization, process management, and cleanup, so users need only be familiar with the client language (for embedding the wrapper in the client application) and the basics of IDL (for accessing and manipulating IDL data and processes).

Export Bridge Assistant

The key to creating your own exported IDL objects is the Export Bridge Assistant, which generates these native wrapper objects from IDL objects. The Assistant is an interactive dialogue in IDL that lets you customize the wrapper object you want to create from the underlying IDL object. You can select the methods, parameters, and properties that you want to export, as well as other information about the IDL object (e.g., whether to convert array majority for parameters). See Using the Export Bridge Assistant for details.

Connector Object

Instead of exporting a custom IDL source object using the Assistant, you can also access IDL functionality using the prebuilt connector object that is shipped with the IDL distribution. This IDL connector object lets you quickly incorporate the processing power of IDL into an application developed in an external, object-oriented environment such as COM or Java. The connector object provides a basic, nondrawable wrapper that includes the ability to get and set IDL variables and execute command statements in the IDL process associated with the connector object. For more information, see Using the Connector Object.