Adobe ColdFusion 8

cfobject: COM object

Description

Creates and manipulates a Component Object Model (COM) object. Invokes a registered automation server object type.

For information on OLEView, and about COM and DCOM, see the Microsoft OLE Development website: www.microsoft.com.

To use this tag, you must provide the object's program ID or filename, the methods and properties available through the IDispatch interface, and the arguments and return types of the object's methods. For most COM objects, you can get this information with the OLEView utility.

Note: On UNIX, the cfobject tag does not support COM objects.

Syntax

<cfobject 
    class = "program ID"
    name = "instance name"
    action = "create|connect"
    context = "inproc|local|remote"
    server = "server name">
    type = "com"

Note: You can specify this tag's attributes in an attributeCollection attribute whose value is a structure. Specify the structure name in the attributeCollection attribute and use the tag's attribute names as structure keys.

See also

ReleaseComObject, cfcollection, cfexecute; "COM" in the ColdFusion Developer's Guide

Attributes

Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

Description

class

Required

 

Component ProgID for the object to invoke. When using Java stubs to connect to the COM object, the class must be the ProgID of the COM object.

name

Required

 

String; name for the instantiated component.

action

Optional

create

  • create: instantiates a COM object (typically, a DLL) before invoking methods or properties.
  • connect: ionnects to a COM object (typically, an EXE) running on server.

context

Optional

 
  • inproc
  • local
  • remote

In Windows, if not specified, uses Registry setting.

server

Required if context = "Remote"

 

Server name, using Universal Naming Convention (UNC) or Domain Name Serve (DNS) convention, in one of these forms:

  • \\lanserver
  • lanserver
  • http://www.servername.com
  • www.servername.com
  • 127.0.0.1

type

Optional

 

Object type. The value com specifies COM objects:

Example

<h3>cfobject (COM) Example</h3>
<!--- Create a COM object as an inproc server (DLL). (class = prog-id)--->
<cfobject action = "Create"
    type = "COM"
    class = Allaire.DocEx1.1
    name = "obj"> 

<!--- Call a method. Methods that expect no arguments should be called by using
    empty parentheses. --->
<cfset obj.Init()>

<!--- This is a collection object. It should support, at a minimum:
    Property : Count
    Method : Item(inarg, outarg)
    and a special property called _NewEnum 
--->
<cfoutput>
    This object has #obj.Count# items.
    <br> <HR>
</cfoutput>

<!--- Get the 3rd object in the collection. --->
<cfset emp = obj.Item(3)>
<cfoutput>
    The last name in the third item is #emp.lastname#.
    <br> <HR>
</cfoutput>
<!---Loop over all the objects in the collection.--->
<p>Looping through all items in the collection:
<br>
<cfloop 
    collection = #obj# 
    item = file2>
    <cfoutput>Last name: #file2.lastname# <br></cfoutput>
</cfloop>