What are some best practices for handling COM objects in PHP to prevent multiple instances from running simultaneously?

When working with COM objects in PHP, it is important to prevent multiple instances from running simultaneously to avoid conflicts and unexpected behavior. One way to achieve this is by using a singleton pattern, which ensures that only one instance of the COM object is created and used throughout the script execution.

class SingletonCOM {
    private static $instance;

    public static function getInstance() {
        if (!self::$instance) {
            self::$instance = new COM('YourCOMObject');
        }
        return self::$instance;
    }
}

$comObject = SingletonCOM::getInstance();
// Now you can use $comObject to interact with the COM object