Com exe and dll

[ashokvishnu]

We have to implement a com server as an executable which will be communicating with a COM dll. COM server would need to call certain functions in COM dll and the com dll would also need to invoke certain functions in the com exe. That is, both would be acting as a server as well as a client. What are the design issues to be considered? Any code samples, tips and suggestion would be most welcome. Thanks

C++beginer

[Roger Stoltz]

When thinking in terms of "client" and "server" it's generally a good idea not to mix those two up. Or to put it in other words: the server serves the client in the aspect of solving a problem which usually is well defined and the server is considered a black box and you don't know how it looks inside and neither want to know nor need to. If you somehow get the impression that the client should serve the server, you should generally get suspicious. If the server need information from the client it does not call the client; the server is provided the information by a call from the client presumably in a struct defined in the IDL-file for the server, or through method parameters. A situation where the server actually calls the client would be during an asynchronous operation when the server informs the client that the operation has finished, e.g. connection points. If you still think your client should behave like a server, please describe your problem further. -- Roger

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