Directory Services

Connection Points

A connection point object contains data about one or more instances of a service available on 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.

Object classes derived from the ConnectionPoint object class

The following table lists immediate subclasses of the connectionPoint class.

Object Class Description
serviceConnectionPoint Service connection point (SCP) objects for publishing data that client applications use to bind to a service. For more information, see Publishing with Service Connection Points (SCPs).
rpcEntry An abstract class whose subclasses are used by the RPC Name Service (Ns) accessed through the RpcNs* functions in the Win32 API. For more information, see Publishing with the RPC Name Service (RpcNs).
serviceInstance Connection point object used by the Windows Sockets Registration and Resolution (RnR) name service, accessed through the Windows Sockets WSA* APIs. For more information, see Publishing with Windows Sockets Registration and Resolution (RnR).
printQueue Connection point object used to publish network printers. For more information, see IADsPrintQueue.
volume Connection point object used to publish file services.

Be aware 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.