Readme.txt for the ActiveX SDK

• Microsoft ActiveX SDK, version 1.0

SUMMARY

The following article contains the complete contents of the Readme.txt file distributed with the ActiveX SDK for Internet Explorer 3.01. (This is the Readme.txt installed on the \Inetsdk subdirectory.)

MORE INFORMATION

README.TXT

Release notes for the Microsoft ActiveX Development Kit:
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, 1996

Note: If you did not access this document from \INetSDK\Help\Default.htm,
that is probably a better place to begin reading documentation. This
readme.txt is the second URL in that document's right hand frame.

-----------------------------------------------------
WELCOME TO THE ACTIVEX SDK:
-----------------------------------------------------

Welcome to the Microsoft ActiveX Software Development Kit. These are the
release notes of the November '96 release of the ActiveX SDK. It is
intended to be installed with the Internet Explorer 3.01 (final version)
and the latest release of the Win32 SDK (dated Aug. 96). The operating
system for this release of the SDK is intended to be Windows 95 or Windows
NT 4.0 SUR (final version).

Here's a brief description of the contents of this folder, followed by
release notes.

BIN       SDK Tools, Redistributables, DLLs and self extracting .exe's
HELP      HTML reference files for all SDK components
INCLUDE   Include files for Win32 Internet Services and OLE Interfaces
LIB       Libraries for the ActiveX SDK
LICENSE   License for ActiveX SDK and Redistributable components.
SAMPLES   ActiveX SDK Samples
SPECS     Additional SDK documentation not yet in HTML references.

------------------------------------------------
PREREQUISITE OF THIS RELEASE OF THE ACTIVEX SDK:
------------------------------------------------

Notes on which VC++, MFC, Internet Explorer, and Win32 SDK are required.

This release introduces for the first time development support for RISC
(Alpha, MIPs, and PowerPC). This is early beta level support for RISC. This
release of the ActiveX SDK requires that you have downloaded and installed:
 - Internet Explorer 3.01. (final version)
   (http://www.microsoft.com/ie/iedl.htm)
 - The latest Win32 SDK (dated Aug '96, available on
   MSDN Level II.)
 - Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 SUR (final version)
 - A compiler:
   for Intel, Microsoft Visual C++ 4.1 is the most tested.
   Do not use VC++ 4.2, unless you have obtained the VC++ 4.2b patch
   on the web at http://www.microsoft.com/visualc.

   For RISC development you should use VC++ 4.0a. (later versions of
   MFC, which is needed for some of the samples, are not yet available
   on all RISC platforms).

   If you are using VC++ 4.2b, you will need to modify the URLPad's
   MAKEFILE in order to get the sample to build. You will need to
   uncomment (remove the "#" symbol from) the line that reads

      # _MFC_LIB_ = 42

   If you use MFC 4.2 in your sample development, you should include
   that line to your makefile if you include INetSDK.MAK.

If you have Visual C++ 4.1 and the later release of the Win32 SDK, you
should set your environment variables by executing the following commands
on your command line. (Note, make exceptions to make sure you go the
correct directories.)

   cd c:\msdev\bin
   vcvars32 x86
   cd c:\mstools
   setenv c:\mstools
   cd c:\inetsdk
   setenv c:\inetsdk

Assuming the above file structure represents your installation, you can cut
and paste the following into a batch file and execute it before building
samples. This assumes you are building on an Intel machine; use the string
"mips", "alpha", or "ppc" accordingly in place of "x86" below.

   REM Batch file starts here.
   set lib =
   set include=

   c:
   cd c:\msdev\bin
   call vcvars32 x86
   cd c:\mstools
   call setenv c:\mstools
   cd c:\inetsdk
   call setenv c:\inetsdk

   REM Batch file ends here.

-----------------------------------------------------
SOME NEW DOCUMENTATION:
-----------------------------------------------------

Cross Platform Downloading Issues:
Now that we have RISC support becoming available, how do you download
controls to different kinds of client platforms? Because the examples are
better illustrated in HTML, you will find information on this in the SDK's
Overview. (the overview of ...\INetSDK\Help\Default.htm)

Installing Issues:
Because adding RISC support increased the size of the SDK significantly,
I've broken up some of the documentation into separate downloads. I will
refer to the three doc sets as MVB, OLE Refs., and ActiveX Refs.

The MVB doc set consists of the entire SDK doc set (OLE Refs., and ActiveX
Refs.) in MVB format, and the InfoViewer for each of the supported NT
platforms. ISVs have asked me to be sure to include this doc set in the SDK
because it offers string search capability and the ability to print
"books". They now account for about 13MB of the SDK, however; so if you are
getting the SDK on a CD, the MVB is probably included and installed by
default; if you are downloading from the web, you are seeing it as a
separate download that you can choose if you wish. The setup of the MVB
will allow you to install right into the SDK if you choose to. See that
download for more details.

The OLE Refs. (or ActiveX COM HTML References) integrates with the ActiveX
Refs. doc set. It makes up less than 5MB of the SDK; however it consists of
nearly 1500 individual files. A limitation of the FAT file system is that
regardless of how small a file is, it takes up a full cluster on the hard
drive. This means these files will take up considerable space if installed,
about 50MB on some machines. If you are using NTFS, or if disk space is not
an issue for you, you can install these docs in the SDK; or you can choose
to browse the same information in the MVB file. I have included OLERefs.zip
as a download from the download site. To install the OLE Refs. in your SDK,
unzip it in ..\INetSDK\Help\OLE. Make sure to use the -d option of your
unzip utility so that the subdirectories are properly extracted. You can
get unzipping utilities at http://www.winzip.com, or
http://quest.jpl.nasa.gov/Info-Zip/ 

The ActiveX Refs. are what I refer to as the rest of the HTML documentation
found starting in your \Help directory. They are downloaded and installed
by default. They contain all of the other ActiveX documentation other than
that found in the ActiveX COM references.

New Content:
There is a difference in the way Internet Explorer 3.01 uses CSS1
(Cascading Stylesheet Specifications) properties which causes pages
formatted for version 3.01 to appear differently when viewed with Internet
Explorer 3.0. The problem is that stylesheet properties can be "inherited"
at different object levels within the document. Version 3.01 correctly
interprets inherited properties for margins and version 3.0 does not. A
"readme" chapter with a section regarding stylesheets was added to the HTML
Reference to explain the issue, and it gives a solution for creating
stylesheets compatible with both versions of Internet Explorer.

-----------------------------------------------------
REFRESHED SDKs: Conferencing and CAB Technology
-----------------------------------------------------

The CabRscKit.exe has been added as a companion to CabDevKt.exe. These are
self extracting .exe which provide you with everything you need to add CAB
support to your applications. CabRscKt.exe adds support for the compression
and decompression API, with documentation and sample code. To install this,
drop it into a sub directory and execute. Read the Readme.txt from there.


The ActiveX Conferencing Technology has now been made available in a
NetMeeting SDK 1.0a. Because this is now available as a self extracting
.exe file in the \bin directory, I have pulled the \MSConf samples that
normally installed with the ActiveX SDK. These are now in the self
extracting .exe MSCNF10a.exe. You can visit their web site at
http://www.microsoft.com/intdev/msconf.

-----------------------------------------------------
SOME NEW SAMPLES:
-----------------------------------------------------

CARD:
Do you like to play Poker, or maybe Solitaire? Well now you can do it via
your browser and ActiveX Controls. See the sample
...\INetSDK\Samples\BaseCtl\Card.

OBJVW:
Quite a few ISVs who have been using the WebBrowser Control have run into
similar issues. A new sample has been added to address some of these
issues, like: how to access IE's Automation model and scripting model from
within a contained control, how to enumerate controls and Java applets in a
page, getting a controls ID or Name as specified in the OBJECT tag, how to
know when a page is completely loaded, how to make a generic class to sink
events, marking controls "Safe for Scripting", etc. This new sample is in
...\INetSDK\Samples\BaseCtl\ObjVw.

=======================================================================
REDISTRIBUTABLE DLLs.
=======================================================================
WINTDist.exe APRXDist.exe, WINT351.exe, and AXDist.exe
-----------------------
|New with this release: The Intel version of the Redistributables have
|been refreshed with the same bits as ships in IE3.01.
|
|There are now RISC versions of the Redistributables. Note however
|that the RISC versions contain prerelease code, and these
|Redistributables should not be release with your finished product.
|These are beta only, and should be used for testing only.
|
|There are also 3 international versions of the Redistributables:
|German, Japanese, and Taiwan. These are prefixed with DE, JA, and TW.
|These are mapped out specifically in the Redist.txt file.
|
|Because of the size of the combined redistributables, and because
|the list of file will grow in the future, I have now separated these
|out into a separate download from the web. You can download this
|file, AXReDist.exe, and extract it according to the download page's
|instructions.
|

The following executables install the following redistributable files. Note
that these redistributable packages are targeted at Windows NT 4.0 final
release and Windows 95, unless otherwise specified to be for Windows NT
3.51. The redistributables break out as follows:

WINTDIST.exe:
 - WinInet.dll
 - InLoader.dll
 - SChannel.dll

WINT351.exe:
Note: SChannel.dll requires Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 95 system components,
so WINT351 does not install SChannel.dll. WINT351.exe will install WinInet
functionality on Windows NT 3.51, but note, it requires enhancements to
WinInet for asynchronous operations only available with Windows NT 3.51
Service Pack 4 (SP4). WINT351.exe will only work on Windows NT 3.51
with SP4.
 - WinInet.dll
 - InLoader.dll

AXDist.exe:
 - WinInet.dll
 - InLoader.dll
 - SChannel.dll
 - URLMon.dll
 - HLink.dll
 - HLinkPrx.dll
 - OLEAut32.dll
 - StdOLE2.tlb
 - RegSvr32.exe
(optionally add:)
 - Advpack.dll (needed for setup)
 - W95inf16.dll (needed for setup)
 - W95inf32.dll (needed for setup)

CCDist.exe: (now available only in the Win32 SDK)
 - ComCat.dll

CCDist35.exe: (now available only in the Win32 SDK)
 - ComCat.dll

APRXDist.exe:
 - ActXPrxy.dll

Please read redist.txt for more details.

The purpose of making the redistributable is so ISVs can redistribute
ActiveX files and target systems that may not have Internet Explorer 3.0
installed on them; but also to know that the files will be installed; with
file dependencies and registry settings set correctly.

These DLLs are ONLY redistributable through the use of the self extracting
executables listed above. See details on redistribution rights in
redist.txt (which has recently been moved into your ActiveX SDK
installation to \InetSDK\License.)

AXDist.exe, WINTDist.exe, APRXDist.exe, and CCDist.exe, work on Windows NT
4.0 and Windows 95. WINT351.exe install WinInet.dll and dependencies on
Windows NT 3.51 (note, it is not meant to work on Windows NT 4.0).
CCDist35.exe will soon be available for Windows NT 3.5.

WINT351.exe is silent by default. The other redistributable that run on
Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 are totally silent if executed with the /Q
switch i.e. "WINTDist.exe /Q". Note, this does not work on Windows NT 4.0
betas, only on the final release. As part of their default behavior, the
redistributables will version check and will not install older components
over newer system files. In silent mode the user will not be prompted to
make a choice.

If you have previously shipped earlier versions of these files, with your
product; your installed base should be upgraded with these releases.

To test your WinInet code with these redistributables:
1. Start with a clean Windows 95 or Windows NT machine <without SDKs or
   Internet Explorer installed>.

2. Run WINTDist.exe (or WINT351.exe)

3. Run and test your code.

To test your URLMon code with these redistributables:
1. Start with a clean Windows 95 or Windows NT machine <without SDKs or
   Internet Explorer installed>.

2. Run AXDist.exe

3. Run and test your code.

Alternately, for testing your code, do the following:

To test these files:
1. Start with a clean Windows 95 or Windows NT machine.

2. Install the Win32 SDK (a release dated May '96 or later).

3. Install the ActiveX SDK (dated August '96 or later).
   <note, the Internet Explorer should not be installed>

   then ... For WinInet only code:

4. Run WINTDist.exe to install WinInet.dll and dependencies.
5. Build and run your WinInet.dll dependent code.

   or/then ... For URLMon code:

6. Run AXDist.exe to install the rest of the files described
   above.

7. Build and run your code.

All of the files in each of the redistributables has been classified as a
"Core Component". This essentially means that once these files are
installed, they should not be uninstalled from a system. Your setup
applications can distribute and execute these files, and will not have to
be concerned with keeping usage count or uninstalling the files.

NOTE: If the redistributables don't meet your distribution needs, report
problems to AXDistB1@microsoft.com 

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbfile
Version : WINDOWS:1.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :