ActiveX

Presentation By: Jaiwardhan Sharma I.D. 28438 Date: April 5,2005

Introduction

Microsoft has unveiled an extensive new solution technology for the Internet called ActiveX.

Microsoft ActiveX is a broad and powerful abstraction for Microsoft Internet Solutions. Content providers and Internet application developers now have a robust and extensible framework that enables them to develop a new generation of Internet applications.

ActiveX Object Model

The Microsoft Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) Viewer component (MSHTML.dll) objects.

Web Browser Control (shdocvw.dll). Both are inprocess (DLL-based) COM objects.

ActiveX Scripting

A script is some executable block, such as a DOS batch file, Perl script or an EXE file. ActiveX Scripting is the interface for script engines and script hosts.

ActiveX Scripting Component

ActiveX Scripting Engine ActiveX Scripting host. A host creates a script engine so that scripts can run against the host. Some examples of ActiveX Scripting hosts: Microsoft Internet Explorer Internet Authoring tools Shell

Microsoft ActiveX Scripting Languages products, such as Visual Basic Script and Java Script, can be used to "glue together the functionality exposed in ActiveX Controls to create rich Web-based applications.

Why Use ActiveX?

With ActiveX, you can make the most of Internet resources with less effort. ActiveX Controls and Scripting give you the infrastructure needed to add language and tool-independent extensions to Web pages. Using ActiveX Controls lets developers take advantage of existing OLE development tools.

ActiveX Scripting allows you to drop any scripting engine into IE 3.0, enabling developers to add behavior to Web pages in whatever scripting language they prefer.

ActiveX Technologies
ActiveX brings to the table some new technologies that are not necessarily related to OLE. ActiveX conferencing ActiveX server extensions Code signing HTML extensions ActiveMovie ActiveX hyperlinks

ActiveX Development Kit

The ActiveX Software Development Kit provides another way to produce ActiveX Controls. It requires extensive knowledge of OLE, COM, and the OLE Control interfaces. The only reason to use this method is to try to create the lightest and fastest control possible; however, the time and complexity of creating a control with this method may not be worth the performance gains. The ActiveX Template Library and Microsoft Foundation Class methods are much easier to implement and much more flexible.

Using ActiveX with VBScript

ActiveX's VBScript :
ActiveX is intended to make it easier to create real computing power within Web pages, and the suggested scripting language of ActiveX, Visual Basic Script (or VBScript), follows this same philosophy. VBScript combines the simplicity of Visual Basic with all the power of JavaScript and then some. Therefore, we can continue using JavaScript in ActiveX-equipped pages, but take advantage of all the benefits VBScript has to offer.

The Benefits of VBScript with ActiveX

If you already have some experience with either creating applications with Visual Basic or creating application scripts, you will find VBScript easy to use immediately. VBScript uses real English, for the most part, and never requires you to learn object-oriented methods or obscure notations like >> or %=, as you would with JavaScript. The assumption is that hard-core programmers will opt to write ActiveX controls with a more structured objectoriented language like C++, but non-programmers will stick with VBScript.

The Power and Ease of ActiveXEnabled Web Servers

Increased Power and Potential

Increased Ease and Simplicity

Integration with Existing Technologies