There are five basic types of elements that can be defined in Interface Description Language (IDL), and thus in a type library. These elements are mapped to Java as shown in the following table.
IDL element | Java element |
Coclass | Public class. |
Interface | Public interface. |
Dispinterface | Public interface. |
Typedef (struct, enum or union) | Public final class. |
Module | Public final interface with public static final member. |
The interface keyword in IDL is used to define custom (that is, vtable-based) interfaces.
The dispinterface keyword in IDL is used to define dispatch interfaces. Properties in the dispatch interface are accessible in Java through get and put methods in the Java interface.