Registering an ActiveX Designer

Because ActiveX designers are an extension of the ActiveX control technology, registering an ActiveX designer is similar to registering an ActiveX control. Designers register the following information:

• The CLSID of the visual designer.
  
  
• The value of CATID_Designer under the Implemented Categories subkey.
  
  
• The CLSID of the runtime object (if different from the visual designer) under the Instance CLSID subkey.
  
  
• The Apartment threading model in the Threading Model subkey.
  
  
• The OLE miscellaneous status flags for the visual designer under the MiscStatus subkey.

  Under the MiscStatus key, the DVASPECT flag should be 1, to indicate DVASPECT_CONTENT. If the run-time object does not have a visual interface, include OLEMISC_INVISIBLEATRUNTIME with the miscellaneous status flags.

• The license key (if a license is required) under the Licenses key.
  
  
• Required and preferred features (if any) under the DesignerFeatures subkey and CATID_DesignerFeatures as a required component category.
  
  
• Toolbox resources (if any) under the DesignerToolbox subkey.
  
  
• Custom information for authored objects, as required by those objects.

All designers must implement the DLLRegisterServer and DLLUnregisterServer APIs for registration, as described in the COM Programmer’s Reference in the Platform Software Development Kit (SDK). In these routines, designers use the ICatRegister interface and other registration routines to register as component categories.

See "Designer-Specific Registry Requirements" in this chapter for details of the specific kinds of entries a designer should register. See "Custom Registration of Created Objects," also in this chapter, for information about registering additional information for authored instances.