Teach Yourself Activex Programming in 21 Days

685 Pages·1996·5.46 MB·English

by  Sanders

Teach Yourself ActiveX in 21 Days

Dedication
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Acknowledgments
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About the Author
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Introduction
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Week One At A Glance
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Day 1: Programming for the Internet
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Day 2: HTML & Scripting
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Day 3: Document Automation with Scripting
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Day 4: The Tools of the Trade
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Day 5: Programming for Internet Explorer
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Day 6: Writing VBScripts
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Day 7: Writing JavaScripts
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— 1 —
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Programming for the Internet
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— 2 —
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HTML & Scripting
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— 3 —
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ActiveX Scripting
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— 4 —
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The Tools of the Trade
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— 5 —
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Programming Inside the Internet Explorer
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— 6 —
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Writing VBScripts
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— 7 —
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Writing JavaScripts
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Week Two At A Glance
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Day 8: A VBScript Application
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Day 9: A JavaScript Application
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Day 10: Setting Up a Web Site for ActiveX
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Day 11: ISAPI—Internet Server API
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Day 12: WinSock—Windows Network Programming
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Day 13: Win32 Internet API
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Day 14: Programming with the Microsoft ActiveX
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Conferencing APIs
— 8 —
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A VBScript Application
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— 9 —
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A JavaScript Application
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— 10 —
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Setting Up an ActiveX Web Site
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— 11 —
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Server Side Scripting with CGI and ISAPI
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— 12 —
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WinSock—Windows Network Programming
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— 13 —
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Learning to Use the Win32 Internet API Library
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— 14 —
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Programming with the Microsoft ActiveX
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Conferencing APIs
Week 3 at a Glance
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Day 15: What Is an ActiveX Control?
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Day 16: Installing ActiveX Controls
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Day 17: ActiveX Control Downloading
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Day 18: Customizing ActiveX Control Properties
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Day 19: User Interaction with ActiveX Controls
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Day 20: Using the Internet Control Pack
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Day 21: Creating an ActiveX Control
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— 15 —
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What Is an ActiveX Control?
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— 16 —
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Installing ActiveX Controls
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— 17 —
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ActiveX Control Downloading
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— 18 —
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Customizing ActiveX Control Properties
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— 19 —
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User Interaction with ActiveX Controls
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— 20 —
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Using the Internet Control Pack
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— 21 —
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Creating an ActiveX Control
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— A —
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Answers to Quiz Questions
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Teach Yourself ActiveX in 21 Days

Dedication
This book is dedicated to my niece, Shaina Rene Kaufman, and to all the other kids who could use a
mouse before they were old enough to turn a doorknob.
Sanders Kaufman
To mom.
Dina Fleet
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I'd like to thank my mother, Judith Kaufman and my friend, Larry Kern—each of
whom subsidized a significant part of the research for this book.
I'd like to thank Holly and Mark Rice for their help in creating some of the cooler animations and static
graphics found in this book and on the enclosed CD-ROM. Holly's a real artist!
I'd also like to thank my baby brother, David, for his work catching my really stupid errors (like
"Computer Object Model" instead of "Component Object Model").
I'd like to thank the editors and staff at Sams.net for their courteous comments and suggestions. It took
me a couple of weeks to get the hang of the fact that they really don't use a hard-line formula in
producing these books. Then again, you can attribute any errors herein directly to me!
Finally, I'd like to thank the developers at Microsoft for updating and publishing the ActiveX
specifications three times during the three months I worked on this tome. By keeping us developers
informed of the progress of ActiveX's development, the technology was released with the advice and
consent of literally thousands of software and documentation authors.
Sanders Kaufman
I would like to thank my family, especially my wife Leslie. They suffer more than I do during the writing
process. I would also like to thank Sharon Cox for the opportunity to write on this important technology.
Jeff Perkins
I would like to thank Sams.net for making this a possibility. I would like to thank Lorraine Schaffer,
Sharon Cox, Kate Shoup, and Todd Bumbalough of Sams for their help.
I would also like to thank Wayne Berry for his support and guidance with this book.
Dina Fleet
About the Author
Sanders Kaufman is an Internet Consultant in Dallas, Texas. He got his start in computers when he was
11 years old. Sanders, his little brother David, and a group of their friends used to hike down to the local
Radio Shack and program TRS-80 BASIC games and animation on the demo machines—the children
themselves being an important part of the demonstration.
In 1988, Sanders focused on providing new and small businesses with management information and
accounting systems tailored to their already installed PC systems.
In 1994, he teamed up with some of the Executive Officers of the Richardson, Texas Telecom Corridor
companies to develop an Internet-Fax system. With a strong foundation in Bulletin Board Systems and
experience as a BBS System Operator, Sanders dove headlong into the broad and expanding
Internet/intranet technologies.
He now lives and works out of his two-bedroom apartment in Addison, Texas. It keeps him in close
contact with his brother Ron, and mother, Judith—to whom he owes more than just his life.
Jeff Perkins is a Senior Software Engineer with TYBRIN Corporation, and a co-author of Teach
Yourself SQL in 14 Days. A graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, he is a veteran with over
2,500 hours of flying time as Navigator and Bombardier in the B-52. He has also been a programmer,
team leader, and program manager.
Dina Fleet holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Principia College, Elsah, Illinois. Her
background includes hardware and network consulting, software development, network and database
engineering, Web development, and quality control. She is originally from Midland, Texas, and now
works for Microsoft in Redmond, WA for the OLE DB team.
Dina can be contacted at [e-mail].
Introduction
When I was first asked to do this book, a lot of folks on the team thought ActiveX was some kind of
programming language like C++, HTML or JavaStuff. In fact, it's all of them and none of them. ActiveX
is a technology—a way of using a computer's environment to communicate over the Web efficiently and
reliably. HTML, C++ Visual Basic, DirectX, and many other tools can be used to take advantage of
ActiveX technologies.
"Why would I want to use ActiveX?" is the question I hear the most. I've got all kinds of answers—a
different one for each individual.
"To have a professional Web presence."
"So people won't have to be techies to use your site."
"So everyone's machine can work with your pages."
The $40 answer is that it allows you to use OLE over the Web. This means that you can use your Web
browser as a front end for your word processor, spreadsheet, database, chat, news, mail, and other
applications. With ActiveX, you don't need to have 10 zillion applications installed on your machine.
Moreover, you don't need to know how to use 10 zillion applications. When the Web browser tries to
load an ActiveX document and you don't have the software required to load it, your Web browser will
contact the software distributor over the Net, grab the stuff you need, and install it onto your local
machine. If you never use that software again, it will be automatically deleted, freeing up valuable
system resources for other uses.
After browsing some of the book titles available for computer programming, I found very few like this
one. That is because ActiveX is a unique concept in programming. It addresses the issues of networking
by relying on standards that have been cussed and discussed by the many standards organizations out
there. Microsoft has said that it will release the ActiveX technologies to an independent standards body
for continued maintenance, but in fact, most of it is already in public hands.
Teach Yourself ActiveX in 21 Days

Week One At A Glance
During Week 1, you will gain the fundamentals of scripting in relation to the Internet. By the end of the
first week, you will be ready to start writing your own ActiveX scripts.
Day 1: Programming for the Internet
Day 1 introduces you to programming for the Internet. In this chapter, you will learn to recognize the
basic features of a hypertext document, as well as how to receive background information about ActiveX
and Internet programming.
Day 2: HTML & Scripting
Day 2 illustrates basic Web-page construction. You are introduced to the format of an HTML page and
the specific tags that make each page work. When you are familiar with the basic form of an HTML
page, you are shown how to incorporate scripting languages into your Web page.
Day 3: Document Automation with
Scripting
Day 3 introduces you to the international standard for client-side scripting, and discusses how Microsoft
has implemented HTML scripting into ActiveX with their JScript (based on another company's script
processes) and VBScript (based on Microsoft's own Visual Basic programming language). Finally, the
chapter briefly discusses some of the considerations for building your own ActiveX scripting engine.
This skill, however, requires an in-depth knowledge of a programming language, such as C++, and a
knowledge of OLE programming in general. You are not limited to using a script language that already
exists, however; if nobody makes the one you want, make it yourself!
Day 4: The Tools of the Trade
Day 4 is a hands-on tour of four tools: Internet Assistant for Microsoft Word, HoTMetaL from SoftQuad,
the Internet Information Server Add-In for Microsoft Access, and the ActiveX Control Pad from
Microsoft. These tools can help you cut hours from you Web-site development time.
Day 5: Programming for Internet Explorer
On Day 5, you will learn the programming environment inside Microsoft's Internet Explorer. During Day
4, you will learn how the parts of Internet Explorer are structured, and how to use them with a scripting
language.
Day 6: Writing VBScripts
Day 6 is an introduction and a reference to VBScript. During Week 2, you will learn how VBScript
functions by working your way through dozens of examples that demonstrate syntax and function. By the
end of Day 6, you will know how to use VBScript inside your HTML pages.
Day 7: Writing JavaScripts
Day 7 is an introduction and a reference to JavaScript. During Week 2, you will learn how JavaScript
functions by working your way through dozens of examples that demonstrate syntax and function. By the
end of Day 7, you will know how to use JavaScript inside your HTML pages.