Q: What is ComTL?

A: ComTL is an ActiveX components designed specifically for applications that need to communicate and/or transfer data between them. By working on a low-level system message-loop ComTL provides maximum interoperability simply and quickly. Data travels directly from one application to another, saving response time and bandwidth. ComTL removes the learning curve usually associated with new software component usage. ComTL is a very intuitive and developer-friendly tool that allows you to create more high quality applications with a minimum of time and effort.

Q: What platforms can ComTL be used on?

A: ComTL can be used on 32-bit platforms such as Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003.

Q: What programming languages can ComTL be used with?

A: ComTL includes both ActiveX (OCX and DLL) components. The ActiveX component is primarily designed to be used with visual development languages such as Visual Basic and Delphi, however it can also be used with any language that supports the ActiveX standard. The only dependency of ComTL is VB runtime. Both (OCX and DLL) offer similar performance and functionality and the choice of which to use is largely up to the preferences of the developer.

Q: How does ComTL complete communication between applications?

A: ComTL utilizes an IPC (InterProcess Communication) mechanism. This is a capability supported by Windows operating systems that allows one application to control another application. ComTL also allows for several applications to share the same data fast and communications and data sharing without interfering with one another. IPC is required in all multiprocessing systems. Windows supports an IPC mechanism called DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange).

Q: How many applications can communicate through ComTL at the same time?

A: Because each application has a unique address and message queue the number which can communicate through ComTL simultaneously is unlimited.

Q: What are the principal advantages of using ComTL?

A: ComTL will immediately save you money and time by eliminating:

• time consuming data entry

• redundant storage

• downtime while data travels to a third computer

• crashes due to traffic overload

• security concerns – with ComTL your data travels directly from one application to another without having to travel over the network

ComTL significantly reduces the time and expense involved in data sharing and network traffic. ComTL allows systems to communicate directly without the need for a server or shared (and therefore insecure) databases, eliminating redundant storage, data entry and useless traffic.

With ComTL there is no need to create listener mechanisms invoked by triggers or MSMQ (or other Message Queuing software) events.

ComTL also eliminates the learning curve usually associated with new software components as it is a very intuitive and developer-friendly tool. With minutes your applications can be connected with a faster response time thus ensuring maximum productivity and efficiency.

Q: Can I connect two DLLs through ComTL?

A: Yes. The ComTL.DLL component can be used for application without GUI

Q: Are there any royalties or runtime licensing fees with ComTL?

A: The ComTL development license allows you to use the ComTL component and/or library with any number of products. Unlike other products which restrict the creation of patches to a single system, any application which uses a licensed copy of ComTL can be used to create an unlimited number of patches.

Q: What is the different between ComTL.OCX and ComTL.DLL?

A: The only real differences between these components is the way they are implemented in the code. There is a type of applications (such as Vantive) that could implement only OCX interface and can not work with DLLs. In this case OCX is nessesary. In any other cases DLL is the right choice.

Both (OCX and DLL) offer similar performance and functionality, so the choice of which to use is largely up to the individual preferences of the developer.

Q: Do I need to define shared resources for ComTL?

A: No, this is not necessary. With ComTL as shared memory resources are allocated and released dynamically, depending on the size of transferred data.

Q: What is the data structure ComTL uses to transfer data?

A: ComTL sends your data "as is". But the recommended and most efficient data structure is XML (Extensible Markup Language). XML allows developers to create customized tags, enabling the definition, transmission, validation, and interpretation of data between applications and between organizations.