COM and .NET Component Services (O'Reilly Windows) - Softcover

Lowy, Juval

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0596001037 ISBN 13: 9780596001032

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, 2001

Synopsis

With COM and .NET Component Services, skilled COM developers can leverage their knowledge for the next generation of components to be built for Microsoft's new .NET framework. A primary goal of Microsoft's COM+ is to provide proven design solutions for scalable systems. Assuming experience with classic COM, COM and .NET Component Services focuses on the added services of COM+, including support for transactions, queued components, events, concurrency management, and security. Along the way, it ably demonstrates that COM+ is a masterpiece of design and usability from the ground up--truly a mature set of component services oriented for the middle tier. COM+ provides a foundation for robust, enterprise-wide, mission-critical distributed applications. And it's not limited to Internet applications. You can use COM+ services in the same places as classic COM components: in-house two-tier information systems, client-tier controls, desktop applications, machine control components, and every other conceivable application of COM. COM and .NET Component Services is the first book to stress the importance of learning to use COM+ services for both .NET and COM component-based applications. Since most companies have considerable investment in existing code base and development skills, COM+ can serve as a migration path for companies and developers. Companies can start (or continue) their projects in COM, using COM+ as a supporting platform for component services, and then when the time comes to move to .NET, they can start plugging .NET components seamlessly into the same architecture, reusing and interacting with their existing COM components.

About this title

Review

Aimed at the more experienced developer or Windows administrator responsible for deployment, COM and .NET Component Services provides an expert guide to getting the most out of COM+ services on the Windows 2000/XP platform, including material on the new .NET platform. This guide will help you create state-of-the-art, scalable Windows components that take full advantage of transactions, object pooling, and powerful administrative features available in COM+.

While Microsoft is about to replace COM components with the new .NET standard, COM+ is still a viable technology and will be fully supported (and even enhanced) in the new .NET Framework. Much of COM and .NET Component Services concentrates on C++ and Visual Basic examples that explore areas of functionality, plus practical tips for configuring and administering components with such tools as the COM+ Services Explorer.

The expert perspective here will help you design components that work with COM+ effectively. There is plenty of background material on COM+ topics like marshaling and interception, which allow objects to be pooled behind the scenes on the Windows platform. But the focus is on the real APIs and programming techniques developers need to work with COM+. This practical focus extends to specific suggestions and pitfalls to avoid for each area of COM+ development. There is good material on COM+ transactions here, along with some excellent material on asynchronous components that tap COM+ queuing capabilities.

The book concludes with a long chapter on .NET, which brings this title current with Microsoft's new programming platform. The author recaps the APIs covered earlier in the book using .NET and C#. (COM+ is still a part of .NET, but you'll use a different set of APIs and programming language to work with it.) The book concludes with a glance at new COM+ 1.5 features, plus a quick introduction to .NET.

In all, this title strikes a good balance between the old and the new. After reading this smart and fast-moving text, developers will be able to immediately learn COM+ skills that will have practical benefit for both current and future Windows software. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Overview on COM+ Components (features and basic deployment), COM+ contexts (marshaling and interception), COM+ instance management, object pooling, just-in-time activation (JITA), COM+ transactions, transaction basics, compensating transactions, two-phase commits and voting, apartments and concurrency, activities, the neutral threading apartment, APIs for manipulating the COM+ catalog, security (roles, programmatic security and pitfalls), queued components (synchronous and asynchronous components), COM+ events and the Event Service (filtering, distributed and asynchronous events), sample code in C++ (and Visual Basic 6), .NET serviced components, .NET packages and APIs for COM+ development, introduction to COM+ 1.5 and the .NET Framework, and administration and programming hints for COM+.

About the Author

Juval Lowy is a software architect and the principal of IDesign (http://www.idesign.net), specializing in WCF architecture consulting and advanced WCF training. Juval is Microsoft's Regional Director for the Silicon Valley, working with Microsoft on helping the industry adopt WCF. He is author of O'Reilly's bestselling "Programming .NET Components", widely recognized by many as the best book for developing .NET-based systems. Juval participates in the Microsoft internal design reviews for WCF and related technologies. He publishes numerous articles on nearly every aspect of .NET development and is a frequent presenter at development conferences. Microsoft has recognized Juval as a Software Legend and as one of the world's top .NET experts and industry leaders.

Edition details

• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0596001037
• ISBN 13: 9780596001032
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384