COM Component

COM components are software programs that use the Microsoft Component Object Model (COM).

COM is a set of standards that specify several constraints that each component should follow in order to comply with the standard,such as which types are valid for a method's argument, or how to manage memory.

COM objects can be created in several different ways and with different tools, such as Visual Basic or C++). Several applications expose functionality as COM objects - this includes most of Microsoft's applications (Office, Internet Explorer, etc.) and many third-party applications.

Integrating COM Components

If you plan on calling an external application that exposes itself using COM from your process or BPM Object methods, make sure you read the COM documentation provided with that application. For example, if you wish to call a Microsoft product, such as Microsoft Excel, you will need to understand Excel's object model, which is documented in the Microsoft Developer Network Website.

Using COM Components

Before using COM components from processes or BPM Objects, you must catalogue the component into the project's catalog. When you catalog a component, you are gathering all the necessary information that Studio needs in order to call and execute it at runtime. Studio also uses this information to detect potential errors at compile time.

See Cataloging a COM Component.

BPM COM Bridge

BPM COM Bridge is a Windows application that acts as a 'bridge' between AquaLogic BPM applications and COM. AquaLogic BPM supplies this application to provide all the necessary services to introspect and use COM components. It is in charge of asking COM invocations, type conversions and marshaling of arguments across the net.

BPM COM Bridge is packaged as a separate application to allow you to:

Run your processes in a robust environment by effectively isolating the Engine from misbehaving components.
Run the Engine in a different host environment from the one used to run COM components (e.g., run your Engine in a Solaris box and your COM components in one or several Windows servers or even use one COM Bridge with several servers).

Because COM components do not necessarily reside on the same machine as the Engine, COM Bridge should be installed on the machine where the component resides. However, this is not absolutely necessary for all components because DCOM components, if properly configured, can be located in a different machine from the one that is running COM Bridge.

See Installing COM Bridge for information on installing COM Bridge.

There are no special considerations when the process that uses COM Components is deployed in a J2EE/UNIX environment. A BPM COM Bridge has to be running on a Windows box accessible through the LAN and it will work as any other service (like a data base, for example).