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<BODY TEXT="#000000" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">Chapter 1<BR>
What Is ActiveX?
</H1>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="#Heading1">What Is ActiveX?</A>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="#Heading2">An Internet Strategy for Applications Development</A>
<LI><A HREF="#Heading3">ActiveX, OLE, and the Internet</A>
<LI><A HREF="#Heading4">Classifying ActiveX Components</A>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="#Heading5">Automation Servers</A>
<LI><A HREF="#Heading6">Automation Controllers</A>
<LI><A HREF="#Heading7">Controls</A>
<LI><A HREF="#Heading8">COM Objects</A>
<LI><A HREF="#Heading9">Documents</A>
<LI><A HREF="#Heading10">Containers</A>
</UL>
<LI><A HREF="#Heading11">From Here...</A>
</UL>
</UL>
<HR SIZE="4">
<H1><A NAME="Heading1">What Is ActiveX? </A></H1>
<UL>
<LI><B>An Internet strategy</B> <SPACER TYPE="VERTICAL" SIZE="2">
ActiveX started out as an Internet strategy. It now covers all
aspects of OLE/COM/Internet development. <BR>
<LI><B>ActiveX development covers many topics</B> <SPACER TYPE="VERTICAL" SIZE="2">
ActiveX development is very broad in scope, covering Automation
Servers, Controls, and COM Objects, to name a few.
</UL>
<P>
The term ActiveX has become the battle cry of many developers
and development organizations over the past year. On the opposite
side of the coin, sales and marketing organizations have also
rallied around this same nebulous term. Few people, however, can
truly explain what the term means. This book is dedicated to explaining
what ActiveX is and what it means to developers. We hope that
you learn as much from reading this book as we did from writing
it.
<H2><A NAME="Heading2">An Internet Strategy for Applications Development</A>
</H2>
<P>
Microsoft first coined the term <I>ActiveX</I> at the Internet
Professional Developers Conference (Internet PDC) in March 1996.
ActiveX referred to the conference slogan "Activate the Internet"
and was more a call-to-arms than a technology or architecture
for developing applications.</P>
<P>
At the time of the Internet PDC, Microsoft was going head-to-head
with Netscape over control of the Internet Web browser market.
The PDC demonstrated, though, that Microsoft was interested in
much more than just the browser market. Microsoft demonstrated
tools ranging from electronic store fronts to new OLE Controls
to virtual reality chat software, and beyond.</P>
<P>
ActiveX is the new corporate slogan of Microsoft--similar to the
term OLE in the early 1990s--and in a very short time, has come
to mean much more than "Activate the Internet."</P>
<P>
ActiveX has become the all-encompassing term used to define everything
from Web pages to OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) Controls.
It has come to signify, on one hand, small, fast, reusable components
that can get you hooked into all the latest technologies coming
out of Microsoft, the Internet, and the industry. On the other
hand, ActiveX represents Internet and applications integration
strategies. These days, products and companies that don't have
ActiveX and Internet somewhere in their nomenclature are considered,
both internally and externally, as being behind the times. The
reality is that trying to describe ActiveX is similar to trying
to describe the color red. ActiveX is not a technology or even
an architecture--it is a concept and a direction.
<H2><A NAME="Heading3">ActiveX, OLE, and the Internet</A></H2>
<P>
ActiveX and OLE have become synonymous. What people once referred
to as OLE Controls (OCXs) are now refered to as ActiveX Controls.
OLE DocObjects are now ActiveX Documents. In some cases, entire
documents on how to implement OLE technologies have been updated
to be ActiveX technologies, and the only thing changed was the
term OLE, which now reads as ActiveX.</P>
<P>
Although tremendous advances have been made and seemingly new
technologies appear daily with regard to OLE and ActiveX, it is
questionable whether the Internet was or is directly involved
in many of these areas. The need for small, fast, reusable components
(COM Objects) has been around for years. Distributed components
(DCOM Objects) were first demonstrated several years ago at the
OLE 2.0 PDC. The Visual Basic (VB) group played a major role in
the enabling of ActiveX in its early days. The BaseCtl framework,
which is included in the ActiveX SDK, was developed by the VB
group to answer its need for small, lightweight Controls to improve
VB application's load times. The only contribution the Internet
had was in its need for a way to implement and publish Web pages.
Practically every new feature labeled ActiveX can trace its roots
back to a fundamental, global need for small, fast, reusable components,
all of which started with OLE and COM.</P>
<P>
ActiveX was not meant to replace OLE, but simply to broaden it
to include the Internet, intranet commercial and in-house applications
development, and the tools used to develop them.</P>
<P>
Microsoft has published a number of documents regarding ActiveX
development. The OC 96 specification defines how Controls should
be developed to provide faster startup times and better drawing
capabilities. It also describes which interfaces are required
and which are optional. The "OLE Control and Control Container
Guidelines" provide important information for Control and
Container interaction. The Microsoft Web site has become a cornucopia
of information for creating, using, and deploying ActiveX components.</P>
<P>
In addition to the specific technologies for creating ActiveX
components, Microsoft has set a standard for the use and integration
of ActiveX components. Every product from VB to Microsoft Word
to Java is inherently capable of using ActiveX components. Four
years ago, it was almost impossible to find more than a handful
of applications that were capable of integrating in such a relatively
seamless fashion as is possible today.</P>
<P>
The next section looks at the specific types of ActiveX components
that can be created and-- to be even more helpful--how and when
they should be used.
<H2><A NAME="Heading4">Classifying ActiveX Components</A></H2>
<P>
This book addresses the topic of ActiveX Component development.
These components can be classified and broken into the following
categories:</P> <BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Automation Servers <BR>
Automation Controllers <BR>
Controls <BR>
COM Objects <BR>
Documents<BR>
Containers
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
This book covers in detail only the development of ActiveX Automation
Servers, Controls, and COM Objects. Automation Controllers, ActiveX
Documents, and Containers entail too many interfaces and too much
technology to be addressed in a book of this size.
<H3><A NAME="Heading5">Automation Servers</A></H3>
<P>
Automation Servers are components that can be programmatically
driven by other applications. An Automation Server contains at
least one, and possibly more, <TT>IDispatch</TT>-based interfaces
that other applications can create or connect to. An Automation
Server may or may not contain User Interface (UI), depending on
the nature and function of the Server.</P>
<P>
Automation Servers can be <I>in-process</I> (executing in the
process space of the Controller), <I>local</I> (executing in its
own process space), or <I>remote</I> (executing in a process space
on another machine). The specific implementation of the server
will, in some cases, define how and where the server will execute,
but that is not guaranteed. A DLL can execute as either in-process,
local or remote; an EXE can execute only locally or remotely.
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