Advanced COM techniques in the ActiveX Pack1

List of the classes in this section:

COMScriptThread (from version 2.3.2.0) - Run scripts in separate thread

Pack1Creator - Advanced COM object creation techniques: Create the objects from ActiveX pack1 library directly bypassing the system (faster and possible without registering the DLL), Create composite objects, create COM objects from COM DLL that are not registered with the system etc.

COMThread - Make calls to objects in separate thread. 

COMApartment - Maintain COM apartment and create/hold there COM objects. 

ActiveX Pack1 contains several objects that allow the scripting applications (such as ASP pages for example) to do things otherwise available for C++/VB/Delphi applications only. And even in these environments it will require additional efforts. Sometimes the limitations of the host of the application (such as IIS or ALP) limits the usage of certain components or techniques. For example an ASP application running under ALP may want to index the hard disk. Such task will take considerable time and is not suitable for an ASP page (no one will wait 15+ minutes for a page to complete). So one of the logical ideas are the threads - run some separate script to do the task in a separate thread and may be allow the user to check its progress from time to time while he is still able to use the other parts of the application. Another not so obvious problem are the COM apartments. In case of pure autorun implemented with ALP you may want to use components not registered with the system. As the COM API depends on the system registry for the determination of the required threading model for a particular component in such a scenario they all will be created in the same apartment where ALP runs (a free threaded apartment). This may cause certain components to fail and here comes the ActiveX pack1 COMApartment object. Even the previous example - the thread most often needs a separate COM apartment because the COM synchronization may prevent the thread to actually run. 

Aside of  the features mentioned above the application may need sometimes non-standard way to create a COM object (directly specifying the DLL and the ClassID in it for example) etc. The ActiveX pack1 now contains tools for each of these situations and the developer have the opportunity to do things not possible for the script based applications before.

Do you need to know something more if you want to use these components? Some of the tricks can be done following the samples but a bit more knowledge about COM and the product you use (ALP,IIS etc) will help you go beyond the samples and do whatever you need, implement ideas you considered impossible before. We suggest reading the COM apartments and threads chapter where you will find basic information about them and how the hosts use them.