Accessing the Control in Web Pages

To access the Microsoft Agent services from a Web page, use the HTML <OBJECT> tag within the <HEAD> or <BODY> element of the page, specifying the Microsoft CLSID (class identifier) for the control. In addition, use a CODEBASE parameter to specify the location of the Microsoft Agent installation file and its version number. The following example illustrates how to use the CODEBASE parameter to autodownload the English language version 1.5 of Microsoft Agent. For information about the current location of the Microsoft Agent installation file for specific language versions and the current release number available, see the Microsoft Agent download page (http://www.microsoft.com/workshop/prog/agent/agentdl.htm).

<OBJECT
classid="clsid:F5BE8BD2-7DE6-11D0-91FE-00C04FD701A5"
CODEBASE = "http://activex.microsoft.com/controls/agent/MSagent.exe#VERSION=1,5,0,0"
 id=Agent
>
</OBJECT>

Before any script on the page can access its services, Microsoft Agent must be installed on the system loading the page. If Microsoft Agent is not installed on the target system, Microsoft Internet Explorer will automatically download the Microsoft Agent server, data provider, and ActiveX control and ask the user whether to proceed with installation. Once installed, these three items do not have to be reinstalled unless the user uninstalls them. To begin using a character, you must also download its data using the Load and Get methods. For more information about the syntax for loading a character, see the Load method.

Note that you can also use the methods, properties, and events exposed by the browser to program the character; for example, to program its reaction to a button click. Consult the documentation for your browser to determine what features it exposes in its scripting model. For the Microsoft Internet Explorer, see the Scripting Object Model.

Supporting Microsoft Agent from a Web page requires Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 or later. For other browsers, contact the supplier for information regarding their support for ActiveX.