ActiveX is a set of technologies from Microsoft that enables interactive content for the World Wide Web.
With ActiveX, Web sites come alive using multimedia effects, interactive objects, and sophisticated
applications.
What Are Its Primary Benefits?
Active Web Content with Impact that will attract and retain users.
Open, Cross-Platform Support on Macintosh, Windows and UNIX operating systems.
Familiar Tools from a wide assortment of tools and programming language vendors, including Visual Basic, Visual C++, Borland Delphi, Borland C++,
Java, and Java-enabled tools. Developers can use what they know and be productive immediately.
Existing Inventory of ActiveX controls available today for immediate use by Web producers.
Industry Standards, with built-in support for key industry and de-facto marketplace standards, including HTML, TCP/IP, Java, COM, and others.
What Are Its Elements?
ActiveX includes both client and server technologies.
ActiveX Controls are the interactive objects in a Web page that provide interactive and
user-controllable functions.
ActiveX Documents enable users to view non-HTML documents, such as Microsoft Excel or Word files, through a Web browser.
Active Scripting controls the integrated behavior of several ActiveX controls and/or Java Applets from the browser or server.
Java Virtual Machine is the code that enables any ActiveX-supported browser such as Internet Explorer 3.0 to run Java applets and to integrate Java applets
with ActiveX controls.
ActiveX Server Framework provides a number of Web server-based functions such as security, database access, and others.
What Can It Do?
ActiveX brings innovation and interactivity to the Web. Because it is supported by many different languages and tools, it enables developers with varied backgrounds
and expertise to bring their creativity to the Web. Based on a refinement of the existing COM standard already known by thousands of developers, it can leverage the
knowledge and work of the development community without a steep learning curve. And because it is a third-generation technology with extensive third-party
support, it provides the richest development platform for both Internet and intranet Client/Server applications available today. ActiveX takes the most creative and
innovative software development efforts and enables them to work together seamlessly in a Web site. With thousands of these software components already existing,
an exciting collection of interactive objects is available for immediate use by Web producers.
How Does It Compare with Java?
ActiveX provides a standard mechanism to extend any programming language, including Java. ActiveX extends the capabilities of the Java language by allowing Java
developers to integrate their applets with the richness of ActiveX. ActiveX ties Java applets together with objects created in other languages, so that Java
programmers can link to ActiveX controls directly from their Java programs. By the same token, objects written in other programming languages from multiple vendors
can link to Java applets. By providing a common way to extend and link programming languages including
Java, ActiveX maximizes developers' resources for interactive Web development.
