Testing the ActiveX Control

ActiveX Controls and the Internet

The ActiveX infrastructure allows controls to be embedded in Web pages and respond interactively to events. Internet ActiveX controls are optimized for size and speed and support asynchronous connections. Examples of Internet ActiveX controls shipped with Microsoft Internet Explorer include:
  • Animated button
  • Gradient
  • Marquee
  • Preloader
  • Stock ticker
  • View tracker

Advantages of Internet ActiveX Controls

Internet ActiveX controls:
  • Simplify and automate authoring tasks .
  • Display data in ways other than text and tables.
  • Add functionality to pages.

Internet ActiveX Control Design Considerations

To design a control that will work in an Internet environment, you need to consider the relatively slow transmission rates on the Internet. Small button and label controls, with only a few bytes of persistent data, are suitable for use in the Internet environment and work well inside Web browsers. To improve control performance, consider the following:
  • ActiveX controls should be asynchronous. This prevents the control from blocking other program functionality.
  • ActiveX controls should become user -interface active as quickly as possible.
* To add an ActiveX control to a Web page
  1. Start Microsoft FrontPage 98.
  2. Select Create a New FrontPage Web from the Getting Started with Microsoft FrontPage dialog and click OK .
  3. Click One Web Page , then type "ActiveX" as the name of the new Web title.
  4. In the FrontPage Explorer, double-click Home Page to open the FrontPage Editor.
  5. Click on the Insert menu, point to Advanced, and then click ActiveX Control .
  6. In the Pick a Control drop-down list box, select Microsoft Calendar Control 8.0 , and click OK .
  7. This will insert the Microsoft Calendar control into the Web page.
  8. From the File menu, select Save .
  9. From the File menu, select Preview in Browser .
  10. Select Microsoft Internet Explorer in the Preview in Browser dialog and click Preview .

    The ActiveX control (Microsoft Calendar) is now functional within Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Lesson Summary

ActiveX is a COM-based technology derived from OLE that can be used to create components that interact with one another, regardless of the language they were written in. ActiveX technologies can be used to create applications that run on the desktop, or on the Internet.

ActiveX controls, commonly called custom controls, are reusable objects that include visual elements and code. They have an .ocx file name extension. To be an ActiveX control, an object must be a COM object, and be self-registering. ActiveX controls can be used in many types of applications, such as Office, Internet Explorer, and Visual Basic. ActiveX controls can be contained within a Web page, but they are not limited to the Internet.



Microsoft Windows Architecture Training
Microsoft Windows Architecture for Developers Training Kit
ISBN: B00007FY9D
EAN: N/A
Year: 1998
Pages: 324

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