| Platform SDK: Active Directory, ADSI, and Directory Services |
A connection point object contains information about one or more instances of a service available in the network. The connectionPoint object class is the abstract base class from which Active Directory objects representing connectable resources are derived. The following illustration shows some of the object classes derived from the connectionPoint object class.
The following table describes the immediate subclasses of the connectionPoint class.
| Object Class | Description |
|---|---|
| serviceConnectionPoint | Service connection point objects (SCP) for publishing information that client applications can use to bind to a service. See Publishing with Service Connection Points (SCPs). |
| rpcEntry | An abstract class whose subclasses are used by the RPC Name Service (Ns), which is accessed through the RpcNs* functions in the Win32 API. See Publishing with the RPC Name Service (RpcNs). |
| serviceInstance | Connection point object used by the Windows Sockets Registration and Resolution (RnR) name service, which is accessed through the Windows Sockets WSA* APIs. See Publishing with Windows Sockets Registration and Resolution (RnR). |
| printQueue | Connection point object used to publish network printers. See IADsPrintQueue. |
| volume | Connection point object used to publish file services. |
Note that COM-based services do not use connection-point objects to advertise themselves. These services are published in the class store. The Windows 2000 class store is a directory-based repository for all COM-based applications, interfaces, and APIs that provide for application publishing and assigning. For more information, see Publishing COM+ Services.