A PowerBuilder application can act as a client to a COM server. The server can be built using any COM-compliant application development tool and it can run locally, on a remote computer as an in-process server, or in COM+.
When a COM component is running on a remote computer, the client computer needs to be able to access its methods transparently. To do this, the client needs a local proxy DLL for the server and it needs registry entries that identify the remote server.
If the component is installed in COM+, the COM+ Component Services tool can create a Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) file that installs an application proxy on the client computer.
If the server is not installed in COM+, the client and proxy files must be copied to the client and the server must be configured to run in a surrogate process.
