Skills Required to Use COM Objects

Although IDL provides an abstracted interface to COM functionality, you must be familiar with some aspects of COM to intertwine COM and IDL successfully.

If You Are Using COM Objects

If you are using a COM object directly, via the IDLcomIDispatch object, you will need a thorough understanding of the COM object you are using, including its methods and properties. An understanding of the Windows tools used to discover information about COM objects is useful.

If You Are Using ActiveX Controls

If you are incorporating an ActiveX control into an IDL widget hierarchy using WIDGET_ACTIVEX, you will need a thorough understanding of the ActiveX control you are using, including its methods, properties, and the information returned when an event is generated. An understanding of the Windows tools used to discover information about ActiveX controls is useful.

If You Are Creating Your Own COM Object

If you are creating your own COM object to be included in IDL, you will need a thorough understanding both of your development environment and of COM itself. It is beyond the scope of this manual to discuss creation of COM objects, but you should be able to incorporate any component created by following the COM specification into IDL by following the procedures outlined here.