User Guide

Creating and using COM objects 951
3. Right-click the object to view it, including the TypeInfo.
If you view the TypeInfo, you see the object's methods and properties, as shown in the
following figure. Some objects do not have access to the TypeInfo area, which is determined
when an object is built and by the language used.
Creating and using COM objects
You must use the cfobject tag or the CreateObject function to create an instance of the COM
object (component) in ColdFusion before your application pages can invoke any methods or
assign any properties in the component.
For example, the following code uses the
cfobject tag to create the Windows CDO
(Collaborative Data Objects) for NTS NewMail object to send mail:
<cfobject type="COM"
action="Create"
name="Mailer"
class="CDONTS.NewMail">
The following line shows how to use the corresponding CreateObject function in CFScript:
Mailer = CreateObject("COM", "CDONTS.NewMail");
The examples in later sections in this chapter use this object.
Note: CDO is installed by default on all Windows NT and 2000 operating systems that have installed
the Microsoft SMTP server. In Windows NT Server environments, the SMTP server is part of the
Option Pack 4 setup. In Windows 2000 Server and Workstation environments, it is bundled with the
operating system. For more information on CDO for NTS, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/
default.asp?URL=/library/psdk/cdo/_olemsg_overview_of_cdo.htm.
The CDO for NTS NewMail component includes a number of methods and properties to
perform a wide range of mail-handling tasks. (In the OLE/COM Object Viewer, methods and
properties might be grouped together, so you could find it difficult to distinguish between them
at first.)