What is ActiveX

13 Pages·2003·0.28 MB·English

Khalil Rehman
December 2, 2003

What is ActiveX:
Microsoft® ActiveX™ is a set of technologies from Microsoft that enables interactive
content for the World Wide Web. With ActiveX, Web sites come alive with multimedia
effects, interactive objects, and sophisticated applications that create a user experience
comparable to that of high-quality CD-ROM titles. ActiveX provides the glue that ties
together a wide assortment of technology building blocks to enable these "active" Web
sites. (Microsoft Corporation, July 1996)

What does ActiveX do?

It is designed to increase the dynamic designs of a website. The controls are components
that can easily be inserted into a Web page or other application to reuse packaged
functionality someone else has programmed.

Benefits of ActiveX
Some benefits of ActiveX are,
• Active web content which attracts the user and retain their interest in the web
pages.
• Open cross platform support on Macintosh, Windows and Unix operating systems
• The tools in which programmer wants to build ActiveX controls are very common
and familiar like Visual Basic, Visual C++®, Borland Delphi, Borland C++,
Java™, and Java-enabled tools
• Existing inventory of ActiveX controls available today for immediate use by Web
producers

ActiveX VS Java
ActiveX is a Microsoft platform dependent and works on window based machine and
only work in the internet explorer browser. Once ActiveX controls install and run on the
machine it doesn’t need to install and run again, saving the download time after first use.
Java has been developed to work on any kind of machine and operating system and do
not need of any kind of plug-in.

Some Examples of making ActiveX controls

Softwares Required:
Microsoft Front page, Visual Basic 6.0 and windows media player 6.4

How to build ?
ActiveX controls that you build in Visual Basic (or any language, for that matter) are not
only useful in development tools but also in end-user applications. For example, you can
embed an ActiveX control created in Visual Basic in an HTML document that will be
viewed in a Web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer. The application in which
an ActiveX control is displayed is referred to as the control’s container. Visual Basic is
the ActiveX control container used for most of the examples however, keep in mind that
your control might be activated in containers other than Visual Basic.
Step 1: Open Visual Basic and click on the ActiveX Control icon
Step 2: Right click on the left tool bar and click on components. In
the components window check on window media player and
Microsoft common dialogue 6.0 then click ok. You will find
window media player and common dialogue button on the left
toolbar.

Step 3: Double click on the window media player and common dialogue button

to insert them in the dotted area. Drag and adjust it as you like.
Step 4: By double clicking in dotted area the code window will appear, write the
following code

Dim str As String
Private Sub Command1_Click()
CommonDialog1.ShowOpen
str = CommonDialog1.FileName
If str <> "" Then
WindowsMediaPlayer1.FileName = str
WindowsMediaPlayer1.Play
End If
End Sub

Save it in the desired folder.
You can run the program by clicking on the play button on the top tool bar

Step 5: Go to files and click on make project.ocx
Now the ActiveX control has been created

How to run ActiveX control over the internet:

Step 1: Create a .CAB( cabinet) file

Click on start menu
Go to programs
Go to Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 tools
Click on Package and Deployment Wizard

A new dialogue box will open. Browse where your project is and then click on the
package icon.
On Package Type dialogue box click on the internet package option.

Follow the directions. Click yes when asked to create the package folder. In the File
Source dialogue box check on Include in this cab and click next.
In safety setting dialogue box change safe for scripting and safe for initialization to
yes from no.

Step 2: Package and deployment wizard will create an html file and .cab file with the
same name in the package folder. Upload the cabinet file along with html file from the
package folder to your krypton server or any other server you like.
If your current security settings prohobit running ActiveX controls in your MS Internet
Explorer 5.0 browser make sure that your Security Settings are not too restrictive to allow
the download and installation of the ActiveX controls. Select Internet Options from the
Tools menu and click on the Security tab. Here you will see that you can modify the
security settings of two Web content zones (Internet and Local Intranet). This is so that
you can allocate different settings to each zone. Setting the select box to “Low” and
clicking on the Reset button in the Reset custom settings section will automatically set
the settings to the appropriate level .Refresh the page again.
Questions and Answers

Short Questions

Q 1. What is ActiveX controls?

Ans. ActiveX Controls

Reusable software components that incorporate ActiveX technology. These
components can be used to add specialized functionality, such as animation or pop-
up menus, to Web pages, desktop applications, and software development tools.
ActiveX Controls can be written in a variety of programming languages, including
C, C++, Visual Basic, and Java.

Q 2. The difference between ActiveX and Java?
Ans. ActiveX is Microsoft plateform dependent and Java is not dependent to any
operating system.

Q 3. What are the three benefits of ActiveX?
The three benefits of ActiveX are as follows,
• Ans. Active web content which attracts the user and retain their interest in the
web pages.
• Open cross platform support on Macintosh, Windows and Unix operating systems
• Existing inventory of ActiveX controls available today for immediate use by Web
producers

Q 4. What is the difference between ActiveX and and ActiveX controls?