Actually components implement OpenOffice API services which are an abstract concept providing certain interfaces and properties. It must be an implemetation of the interface com.sun.star.lang.XSingleServiceFactory . The class InstanceInspector should provide two methods which are called by the Java Loader. The UNO Base Interface and IDL An interface is a collection of methods that provide a certain functionality. Cyclic references are handled by the com.sun.star.lang.XComponent interface .
Error handling is based on exceptions.
For more details on building a component you should take a look at the section How to build a component or the document Mapping of UNO IDL to Java . The Service Manager is the central location where components are instantiated. It comes with a list of all available services registered. If a component is requested the Service Manager searches its list for a given service, in order to get the assigned factory. This method should be implemented to return a customized factory for the component.