Chapter Thirty-Six -- ActiveX Document Servers and the Internet

Chapter Thirty-Six

An ActiveX document is a special file that you can download from a Web server. When the browser sees an ActiveX document file, it automatically loads the corresponding ActiveX document server program from your hard disk, and that program takes over the whole browser window to display the contents of the document. The Microsoft Internet Explorer browser is not the only ActiveX document container program. The Microsoft Office Binder program also runs ActiveX document server programs, storing the several ActiveX documents in a single disk file.

In the COM world, an ActiveX document server program is called a server because it implements a COM component. The container program (Internet Explorer or Office Binder) creates and controls that COM component. In the Internet world, the same program looks like a client because it can request information from a remote host (Microsoft Internet Information Server).

In this chapter, you'll learn about ActiveX document servers and ActiveX documents and you'll build two ActiveX document servers that work over the Internet in conjunction with Internet Explorer. Pay attention to this technology now because you'll be seeing a lot more of it as Microsoft Windows evolves.