Activex All in One: A Web Developer's Guide with Cdrom, 1st edition
Authors: Zane Lang
Venue:  (1997)

From the Book:ActiveX All In One: A Web Developers Guide provides you with the information necessary to become a successful Web designer using the latest and most advanced Web development technologies: HTML 3.2, VBScript, JavaScript, and ActiveX controls. With these development tools, even people with relatively little programming experience can develop powerful and effective Web sites in a short period of time. This is due in large part to the efforts of leading software manufacturers like Microsoft, Netscape Communications, and Sun Microsystems, who have created robust and easy to use development tools. The evolution of scripting languages such as JavaScript, by Netscape Communications, and VBScript, by Microsoft, make it easier for beginners to create Web pages linked to powerful database and multimedia applications. More experienced programmers can use Sun Microsystem's object-oriented programming language Java to develop applets. Programmers familiar with Java or Microsoft's Visual Basic have the added advantage of being able to leverage their familiarity with these languages into becoming Web site developers in record time using JavaScript and VBScript. THE BEAUTY OF ACTIVEX Enter ActiveX, the latest and most dramatic step forward in Web site development. With ActiveX, Microsoft has extended and adapted its powerful desktop technology Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) to the Internet. ActiveX enables Web site developers to quickly and easily embed controls in their Web sites to respond interactively to events. For example, ActiveX controls can be inserted in a Web page to call up a form, access a database, play sounds, show video clips and demonstrate 3-Dvirtual reality simulations. With ActiveX, Web developers are able to use a variety of objects on a Web page, created by different programming languages, and yet still have all of these objects communicate interactively. ActiveX gives Web designers enormous flexibility in creating interesting and powerful Web sites. It is this power and flexibility that makes it easier to transact business on the World Wide Web. As a result, more and more businesses will need to develop Web-based business applications to sell their products and services. Hobbyists, too, will find people visiting their sites again and again. ActiveX makes Web sites more attractive to potential business customers as well as to casual Web Surfers by making them more interactive using multimedia effects and sophisticated applications. Although ActiveX is a new technology, there are over a thousand existing Visual Basic OCX controls that can be incorporated into Web pages as ActiveX controls. As a result, Web designers can make a fast start in developing Web sites with familiar software components without the steep learning curve typically required by a new technology. ActiveX technology is also a key strategy in the development of Intranets. Using ActiveX technology, organizations can add greater functionality to their Intranets, thereby dramatically increasing the ability of their employees to work together effectively. In short, after reading this book you will be ready to develop highly-interactive and interesting Web sites of your own. Even more important, as a Web site developer, you will have acquired the skills necessary to keep you competitive in the ever-changing world of Internet Web site development. I know you will find this text a useful addition to your Internet library and hope that you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. The ACM Portal is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2010 ACM, Inc. Terms of Usage Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Contact Us Useful downloads: Adobe Acrobat QuickTime Windows Media Player Real Player