Chapter 19: Using Enterprise Services (COM)

An Introduction to COM+ and Serviced Components

Microsoft has announced that their Windows XP and upcoming Windows .NET Server products will include COM+ version 1.5. This new version of COM+ has apparently been renamed to Microsoft Windows Enterprise Services . And the pro gramming community shouts:

"Finally, Microsoft got it right!"

Given the impressive offering of services exposed by COM+, the new, more encompassing name is much more appropriate. The name "Enterprise Services" is certainly a big step for this product. If you want to have some fun, casually remind a veteran Windows and Web developer that this product's pre-COM+ legacy name was Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS). On the other hand, maybe you should avoid ever mentioning this fact. The MTS and COM+ product names have always been a sore spot with Windows and Web developers.

This chapter presents an opportunity to explore the combined use of Enterprise Services (COM+) and .NET. The managed components that you will integrate into COM+ ^[1] are referred to as serviced components . In this chapter, you will create serviced components and you will be further introduced to COM+.

For perspective, before you get into programming code, you will look at the big-picture view of Enterprise Services (COM+). From there, you will take your first step toward creating serviced components by creating a class library (.dll) that uses the System.EnterpriseServices namespace. After you accomplish that, you will learn about the process of installing your serviced component into COM+. Lastly, you will create a client to consume the class library (.dll) in its new serviced component state.

^[1] I will use the COM+ product name throughout this chapter. At some point in the future, as the Enterprise Services product name becomes more common, I expect that others and I will likely discontinue using the legacy name of COM+.