User Guide

Table Of Contents
946 Chapter 38: Integrating COM and CORBA Objects in CFML Applications
You create instances of objects using the cfobject tag or the CreateObject function. You then
use the object and its methods in ColdFusion tags, functions, and expressions. For more
information on the ColdFusion syntax for using objects, see “Creating and using objects
on page 947.
About COM and DCOM
COM (Component Object Model) is a specification and a set of services defined by Microsoft to
enable component portability, reusability, and versioning. DCOM (Distributed Component
Object Model) is an implementation of COM for distributed services, which allows access to
components residing on a network.
COM objects can reside locally or on any network node. COM is supported on Microsoft
Windows platforms.
For more information on COM, go to the Microsoft COM website, www.microsoft.com/com.
About CORBA
CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) is a distributed computing model for
object-oriented applications defined by the Object Management Group (OMG). In this model,
an object is an encapsulated entity whose services are accessed only through well-defined
interfaces. The location and implementation of each object is hidden from the client requesting
the services. ColdFusion supports CORBA 2.3 on both Windows and UNIX.
CORBA uses an Object Request Broker (ORB) to send requests from applications on one system
to objects executing on another system. The ORB allows applications to interact in a distributed
environment, independent of the computer platforms on which they run and the languages in
which they are implemented. For example, a ColdFusion application running on one system can
communicate with an object that is implemented in C++ on another system.
CORBA follows a client-server model. The client invokes operations on objects that are managed
by the server, and the server replies to requests. The ORB manages the communications between
the client and the server using the Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP).
Each CORBA object has an interface that is defined in the CORBA Interface Definition
Language (IDL). The CORBA IDL describes the operations that can be performed on the object,
and the parameters of those operations. Clients do not have to know anything about how the
interface is implemented to make requests.
To request a service from the server, the client application gets a handle to the object from the
ORB. It uses the handle to call the methods specified by the IDL interface definition. The ORB
passes the requests to the server, which processes the requests and returns the results to the client.
For information about CORBA, see the following OMG website, which is the main web
repository for CORBA information: www.omg.com.