add site
services
publishers
database
health videos
toolbar
stats
live show
health store
more stuff
JOIN/LOGIN
| advertise add site services publishers database health videos
| | about toolbar stats live show health store more stuff JOIN/LOGIN |
ActiveX is a framework for defining reusable software components (known as controls) that perform a particular function or a set of functions in Microsoft Windows in a way that is independent of the programming language used to implement them. A software application can then be composed from one or more of these components in order to provide its functionality.[1] It was introduced in 1996 by Microsoft as a development of its Component Object Model (COM) and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technologies and it is commonly used in its Windows operating system, although the technology itself is not tied to it. Many Microsoft Windows applications — including many of those from Microsoft itself, such as Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Visual Studio, and Windows Media Player — use ActiveX controls to build their feature-set and also encapsulate their own functionality as ActiveX controls which can then be embedded into other applications. Internet Explorer also allows embedding ActiveX controls onto web pages.
[edit] ActiveX controls ActiveX controls — small program building blocks — can serve to create distributed applications that work over the Internet through web browsers. Examples include customized applications for gathering data, viewing certain kinds of files, and displaying animation. One can compare ActiveX controls in some sense to Java applets: programmers designed both of these mechanisms so that web browsers could download and execute them. However, they also differ:
Malware, such as computer viruses and spyware, can be accidentally installed from malicious websites using ActiveX controls (drive-by downloads). Signed Java applets can also be used for such attacks, although this is rare. Programmers can write ActiveX controls in any of the following languages/environments: Common examples of ActiveX controls include command buttons, list boxes, dialog boxes, and the Internet Explorer browser. [edit] HistoryFaced with the complexity of OLE 2.0 and with poor support for COM in MFC, Microsoft rationalized the specifications to make them simpler, and rebranded the technology as ActiveX in 1996.[3][4] Even after simplification, users still required controls to implement about six core interfaces. In response to this complexity, Microsoft produced wizards, ATL base classes, macros and C++ language extensions to make it simpler to write controls. Starting with Internet Explorer 3.0 (1996), Microsoft added support to host ActiveX controls within HTML content. If the browser encountered a page specifying an ActiveX control via an
[edit] ActiveX in non-IE applicationsIt may not always be possible to use Internet Explorer to execute ActiveX content (e.g. on a WINE installation), nor may a user want to.
[edit] Other ActiveX technologiesMicrosoft has developed a large number of products and software platforms using ActiveX objects. Some remain in use as of 2009:
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ↑ top of page ↑ | about thumbshots |
