Active Technology Topics

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Active technologies (formerly called ActiveX) use the Component Object Model (COM) to enable software components to interact with one another in a networked environment, regardless of the language with which they were created. Active technologies can be used to create applications that run on the desktop or the Internet.

Active technologies include both client and server technologies, including the following:

• Active document containment, supported in MFC versions 4.2 and later, allows users to view Active documents (such as Microsoft Excel or Word files) and activate the entire interface of the document's native application in the entire client area of an Active document container such as the Microsoft Office Binder or Microsoft Internet Explorer. The containers act as clients, while the documents are provided by Active document servers.
  
  
• ActiveX controls are interactive objects that can be used in containers such as a Web site. For more information on ActiveX controls, see:

  ActiveX Controls (Adding User Interface Features)

  Internet First Steps: ActiveX Controls

  Internet Support: Overview

  Upgrade an Existing ActiveX Control to be Used on the Internet

• Active Scripting controls the integrated behavior of one or more ActiveX controls and/or Java programs from a browser or server. For more information on Active Scripting, see:

  Script an ActiveX Control on a Web Page

  Active Technology on the Internet

• Automation (formerly known as OLE Automation) makes it possible for one application to manipulate objects implemented in another application, or to “expose” objects so they can be manipulated.

  The automated object might be local or remote (on another machine accessible across a network). Automation is available for both OLE and COM objects.

For a discussion of what is still called OLE versus what is now called Active technology, see OLE Topics.

What do you want to know more about?

• Overview of Active Document Containment
  
  
• Example of Active Document Containment: Office Binder
  
  
• Creating an Active Document Container Application
  
  
• Active Document Containers
  
  
• Active Document Servers
  
  
• Active Documents

Sample Programs

• The MFCBIND sample illustrates the implementation of an Active document container application.
  
  
• The BINDSCRB sample illustrates the use of Active interfaces to provide Active documents.