FW: Documenting Component Object Model (COM+)

[John Posada <JPosada -at- book -dot- com>]

I received this from a lurker on this who asked that I remove her
identification information. However, I think it's worth sharing with the
list.

=======

Here's my format for API docs:
<property/method/event name> (<interface name> <property/method/event>)
<api signature - name(parameter 1, parameter 2, etc ...)>
<specify read-only, read/write, write-only for properties>
<specify return value for methods>
<description: include description of parameters, return value, when/why to
use 
property/method/event>
<sample usage in two scripting languages, this is formal code>
<code sample>

Generally, about COM:
basically, it's an object that implements some basic interfaces specified by

Microsoft. Developers can query a COM object to discover its properties, 
methods, and events. 

If you use something called the "Object Browser", you can look at all of the

properties, methods, events, and enumerated types available to a COM object.

Open the macro editor for any Microsoft Office product or any Microsoft 
Development environment (such as Visual Studio 6), and click View>Object 
Browser. You may need to customize the Object Browser to display your
object: 
use its help to figure out how to do this.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-
us/vsintro7/html/vxurfobjectbrowsers.asp

I don't know how to dump this info into a text file gracefully, I usually 
retype it.

********** important: check with your developers to see which APIs they want

documented - unsupported APIs may change without notice and cause major 
headaches for your documentation ***********


John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Barnes&Noble.com
jposada -at- book -dot- com

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