Has anyone implemented an Adapter to “talk” with a Microsoft COM component based application written in VB6? I am looking for any help in and tips/classes would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Thomas
The simple answer is yes. The much more complicated answer is how.
Because you will want the adapter to identify and make available any COM object that is registered on the machine, you will need to understand Java, JNI and C++ (for performance and access to I-Dispatch functionality).
There are a number of Java-COM bridges out there that provide a step in the right direction. You will also need to make some decisions regarding COM data types, IN-OUT parameters, objects as parameters, etc.
When planning out configured operations, give thought to the different types of interactions you will want to have with each object and the lifecycle of the object.
A few things to look into:
- If you are using the Integration Server, then the integration Server has the ability to call COM components. You will need to enable the WmWin32 package. See the Developer’s Gude for more information.
- If you are using the Enterprise Server, Crowe Chizek has a 3rd party COM Adapter that you can purchase. I’ve used this and it’s pretty easy to use and the Crowe folks are very helpful.
- If you want to build your own adapter, you can use the jacob java library to help call COM functions from java.