COM

A Slideshow of Epic Proportions

What is COM?
A standard for interoperable software A runtime library providing low-level or hard-to-implement functionality A competitive, capitalist marketplace for selling functionality to application developers An endless source of healthy obfuscation

That Last Slide Was Pulled From Booboos Rear End. What is COM, Really?
A sacred covenant held by the worlds best developers. All software functionality is encapsulated through a COM class (coclass) and exposed through COM interfaces
Mooooo
Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

Booboo

Interface and Coclass Fundamentals

An interface is a group of methods A coclass is a group of interfaces All coclasses implement the IUnknown interface All other interfaces derive IUnknown Lollipop diagrams describe coclasses
IUnknown IFoo IBar Oink

About Interfaces
The client communicates with the server through interface pointers (think base class pointers) Methods implemented by the coclass are invoked through interface pointers Interface pointers are acquired through IUnknown Because all interfaces derive IUnknown, any interface pointer on an object can be acquired through any other interface pointer on the object The method to acquire an interface pointer is IUnknown::QueryInterface (think dynamic_cast)

More About Interfaces

Interfaces are equivalent to C++ abstract base classes Because there is no standard thunk mechanism, interfaces do not support multiple inheritance Two IUnknown pointers point to the same object if their values are equal Dispatch interfaces are special case interfaces allowed by the COM Specification

Interfaces and Virtual Tables

An interface pointer points to the corresponding slice of a COM object The first 4 bytes of this slice comprise a pointer to the interfaces virtual table Each slot in this virtual table is the address of an interface method A method implementation may be referenced by more than one vtbl entry

IUnknown
m_pUnkVtbl

pQueryInterface pAddRef pRelease

QueryInterface() AddRef()

IFoo IBar

m_pFooVtbl m_pBarVtbl
pQueryInterface pAddRef

Release()

Oink

pRelease pFooFunc1 pFooFunc2 pFooFunc3

FooFunc1() FooFunc2()

pQueryInterface pAddRef pRelease pBarFunc1 pBarFunc2 pBarFunc3

FooFunc3()

BarFunc1() BarFunc2() BarFunc3()

Interface Method Indirection

Reference Counting
To regulate destruction of objects, COM requires that all coclasses implement a reference counter COM objects can have their methods invoked from other threads, processes, and even machines. Reference Counting eliminates a number of problems associated with synchronization

Reference Counting Rules

Each object is given a reference count of 1 upon instantiation IUnknown::AddRef increments the reference count A successful IUnknown::QueryInterface call increments the reference count IUnknown::Release decrements the reference count When the reference count is decremented to zero, the object destroys itself

So Why All These Interface and Reference Counting Formalities?

One of the most amazing features of COM objects is location transparency: COM marshals interfaces between processes and remote computers Reference counting guarantees that a client cannot prematurely destroy a shared object COM is language transparent: unsophisticated languages like Visual Basic, VBA, J-Script, and VB-Script would not otherwise be able to properly delete objects

Speaking of Location Transparency...

COM objects (servers) can be delivered in two module types: EXEs or DLLs (aka OCXs) EXEs cannot run in-process DLLs can only run in-process A surrogate EXE can load a DLL to make it an out-of-process server

IUnknown
m_pUnkVtbl

pQueryInterface pAddRef pRelease

QueryInterface() AddRef() Release()

IFoo

m_pFooVtbl

pQueryInterface pAddRef pRelease pShake pRattle pRoll

Foo

Shake() Rattle() Roll()

An In-process Server
(same apartment)

IUnknown

IUnknown

STA
IFoo IBar Oink_Proxy IBar IFoo Oink_Stub IUnknown

IFoo
COM Invisible Window
Client Code

IBar

Oink

STA

In-process Server (different apartment)

IUnknown
m_pUnkVtbl

Process Boundary

IFoo

m_pFooVtbl

Foo_Proxy
QueryInterface_Stub()

QueryInterface_Proxy() AddRef_Proxy() pQueryInterface_Proxy pAddRef_Proxy pRelease_Proxy Release_Proxy()

IUnknown
m_pUnkVtbl

IFoo
Shake_Proxy() pQueryInterface_Proxy pAddRef_Proxy pRelease_Proxy pShake_Proxy pRattle_Proxy pRoll_Proxy Roll_Proxy() Roll_Stub() Rattle_Proxy() Rattle_Stub() Shake_Stub()

m_pFooVtbl

Foo

IPC

Local Server

IUnknown
m_pUnkVtbl

IFoo

m_pFooVtbl

Foo_Proxy

Client Machine

QueryInterface_Proxy() AddRef_Proxy() pQueryInterface_Proxy pAddRef_Proxy pRelease_Proxy Release_Proxy()

QueryInterface_Stub()

IUnknown
m_pUnkVtbl

MS-RPC
Shake_Proxy() pQueryInterface_Proxy pAddRef_Proxy pRelease_Proxy pShake_Proxy pRattle_Proxy pRoll_Proxy Roll_Proxy() Roll_Stub() Rattle_Proxy() Rattle_Stub() Shake_Stub()

IFoo

m_pFooVtbl

Foo Server Machine

Remote Server

Things To Note
All interface method calls are synchronous; a remote call to a New York server must complete its round-trip before the client can continue execution Asynchronous services are available through Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) and ICallFactory (Windows 2000) Encryption, authentication, and impersonation services are available with remote server connections (at least on NT)

Confused?

Where Am I?

The Guy In The Back Row

COM Owns You

So what does all this nonsense about location transparency and reference counting have to do with anything?
Ever heard of OLE? Ever heard of ActiveX? You may suspect that these have something to do with COM...

WRONG!

They are COM.

All will soon be clear

MS Marketecture: Common Misperceptions

OLE is a system of linking and embedding data into a document (hence the acronym Object Link and Embedding) ActiveX, like Java, is a system for building web page applets Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) processes business data from the internet

Faery Tales!

The Journey of COM

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) was introduced while the Earth was still cooling. DDE was unsavory. MS unveils OLE 1.0 after the villagers riot OLE 1.0 is a big success but hard to program. MS unveils OLE 2.0 for Windows 3.1: COM is born (its 16bit) Windows NT 3.5 is blessed with OLE (look ma no version number!) and true 32bit COM. OLE is now Ol, which is synonymous with COM

The Journey of COM (II)

To celebrate Windows 95, MS blesses COM with the apartment model 1996 sees Windows NT 4. DCOM brings network and multithreading enhancements to COM Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) becomes available for NT Server. This doesnt process web business data. Its a COM runtime environment which allows components to run more efficiently (solving scalability difficulties often faced in processing business data)

The Journey of COM (III)

OLE-DB provides consistency when accessing data from a variety of providers MS makes web browsers a priority (IE3) and simultaneously coins the term ActiveX, adding to the COM marketecture. Like OLE, ActiveX is a synonym for COM. Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) delivers asynchronous (and vastly more reliable) method calls Visual C++ 5.0 ships with ATL 2.1. OLE Control creation has never been so easy!

The Journey of COM (IV)

Windows 2000 ships in 2004. Microsoft introduces COM+ acronym: COM+ is simply COM on Win2k Win2k includes many COM updates including a third threading model (the Neutral Threaded Apartment) and integration of MTS into the COM runtimes COM+ 2.0 delivers legendary COM virtual machine Windows NT 6 device contexts replaced by DirectDraw surfaces. Classic OLE Control interfaces deprecated for new, ultra-spiffy interfaces

COMprehension
COM is a set of many, many technologies. COM is really Microsofts software engineering strategy Computer people (you) are betting the bank on Microsoft Microsoft is betting the bank on COM COM Owns You

COM Defined
A single sentence cant define COM, because COM is such a monumental and omnipresent set of technologies.
So what is a COM technology? Any software creation that leverages interfaces and coclasses, as described in the earlier slides.

COM in Everyday Life

The Month View is from the Microsoft Windows Common Controls-2 6.0 controls library

Property Pages

How does Visual Basic know which properties to put in the box?

Events

How does Visual Basic know which events the control exposes?

What is a VB Control?

What Functionality Does It Expose?

Properties and Methods

The Secret of Property Pages

Property Page Coclasses

Property Pages Abound!

Standard Interfaces
Programming sucks. Best to fall back on platform-provided functionality A container/client can interact with any server/control simply by implementing the required site interfaces Application developers who license your components are already familiar with the interfaces Standard interfaces can use the Microsoftprovided proxy/stubs

What Are Some COM-Based Technologies?

OLE Controls OLE-DB ADO DAO DirectX TAPI 3.0 Exchange Server Exchange Client Active Scripting CDO 2.0 MAPI SQL-DMO SQL-NS Microsoft Repository Broadcast Architecture Still Image API Microsoft Multimedia Indexing Service

Still More COM Technologies!

Active Desktop IIS Microsoft Agent Microsoft Java SDK NetMeeting NetShow Microsoft Wallet Active Directory Active Accessibility Clustering Service Fax Services MSMQ RAS Synchronization Manager Structured Storage MTS MMC Windows Shell API all OLE Applications

The Glory of COM

COM eliminates thread synchronization and IPC/RPC confusion COM enables real polymorphism: language transparency and location transparency COM mandates a consistency among component interfaces to reduce learning curves COM allows versionless updates COM is the best component standard: it is by far the most commercially successful

DLL Server Mechanisms

DllRegisterServer and DllUnregisterServer manipulate the registry DllCanUnloadNow tells COM when the module is not being used DllGetClassObject provides the client with the class factory of the required COM object

EXE Server Mechanisms

A /RegServer argument registers the EXE A /UnregServer argument un-registers the EXE CoRegisterClassObject registers a class factory for clients to connect to RegisterActiveObject adds an object to the Running Object Table (ROT)

COM Object Instantiation

CoGetClassObject (wrapped by CoCreateInstance and CoCreateInstanceEx) launches a module and retrieves its class factory CoGetClassObjectFromURL downloads a module from an URL, decompresses it, registers it, and invokes CoGetClassObject on it GetActiveObject loads an object off the ROT

COM Security
CoInitializeSecurity sets the authentication requirements for the current process The COSERVERINFO structure specifies the machine name and authentication info for clients connecting to remote objects CoImpersonateClient allows the server to impersonate the client when accessing other servers

Books of COMpetency
The C++ Programming Language (Bjarne Stroustrup) Programming Windows (Charles Petzold) Advanced Windows (Jeffrey Richter) Design Patterns (Gamma, Helm, Johnson, Vlissides) Essential COM (Don Box)

Hoorah For Reading!

Effective COM (Box, Brown, Ewald, Sells) Inside OLE (Kraig Brockschmidt) Professional ATL COM Programming (Richard Grimes) Microsoft Systems Journal (www.microsoft.com/msj) Seans Web Page (www.eburg.com/~baxters/)

May the COM Be With You

Thank You