newbie alert: XUL and COM?

Hello,

I'm looking into building a XUL interface that a user will run locally (as an application), and will enable him to read and write offline mail in a Fidonet network (ancient technology, I know).

This offline network uses a database known as JAM, and there's a COM object which interfaces with the database (enabling the programmer to submit queries and get results).

Now, the question is -- how do I interface with the COM object via XUL? How do I make the click of a button to call a method of a COM object?

TIA!

http://books.mozdev.org/chapters/index.html - look under the xpcom section of the book - - -

Thanks... I checked it out, but actually it's waaay over my head technically. I just need a simple answer -- will I be able to use a COM object with XUL (under XPCOM or whatever)?

I'm talking about a COM object which already exists.

Yes - but you need to go through quite a few steps to be able to.

My suggestion would be to grab an xul application and tear through the source tree to see how it is done.

Page 206 (in the paperback book, not sure about the online book) talks about com objects and the interaction with them. You may want to grab that section and have a look at that -

Thank you very much, jpenn, for the informative answer. It helped me. I think I'm going to use some C functions instead of the COM object to obtain what I want in my little app/script.

Another thing that may get you up to speed on this is there are some bindings for MySQL somewhere on the net () that can be used in an xul architecture. This may be a good package for you to get a hold of as the code should show in detail how to make your interaction possible. I have not seen the package, have only heard about it. If rycamor strolls through here, maybe he can provide some insight on this...