ActiveX Sourcebook is best thought of as a technical orientation manual. It covers a lot of territory, but in enough depth that programmers and Web developers will get a clear idea of the programming challenges they'll face in each area discussed. After starting out with a basic overview of ActiveX's purpose and advantages on the Web, the authors go on to survey the Internet Explorer browser object model and Internet-related functions in the Win32 API.
Web developers with less programming experience will be more at home in the next few chapters, which discuss how to develop Web sites using Microsoft FrontPage and how to manipulate HTML objects and forms using VBScript. The book then covers how to use the ActiveX Control Pad to put ActiveX controls into your pages and manage them programmatically. You'll also be introduced to some of the most popular ActiveX controls, including RealAudio, ActiveMovie, and Shockwave, as well as the programmatic interface to Microsoft NetMeeting. A dense chapter on dbWeb gives a detailed look at this gateway tool for connecting an ODBC data source to an ISAPI Web. The book rounds out with a technical overview of the NetManage Internet Control Pack (formerly available from Microsoft), a suite of free ActiveX controls for creating FTP, HTTP, HTML, POP, SMTP, NNTP, and Winsock applications. If you want to get a broad technical overview of what ActiveX is all about, ActiveX Sourcebook is a strong pick. However, you'll probably want to supplement this book with more detailed guides to particular ActiveX subject areas.
Product Description
Create interactive multimedia Web sites and build next-generation Web applications.
ActiveX Sourcebook is the complete guide to Microsoft's powerful new family of Web publishing and development technologies. This book will teach you how to efficiently create and manage interactive multimedia content on your Web site or company intranet using ActiveX tools and components, including.:
- The Explorer 3.0 Web browser
- The FrontPage development environment
- ActiveX controls
- ActiveX Server Framework
- Scripting languages for ActiveX, including Visual Basic Script
- ActiveX Control Pad.
The book will teach you the capabilities and commands of these technologies and supporting products, and enable you to:
- Create exciting interactive Web sites by linking and embedding ActiveX components
- Build Web multimedia pages and applications, complete with animations, audio, and movies
- Manipulate, customize, and even build high-powered ActiveX controls
- Learn new ActiveX client and server development architectures
- Support Internet conferencing with ActiveX technology.
ActiveX Sourcebook is the definitive resource for Webmasters who want to apply Microsoft's hot new technologies to their Web and intranet publishing and development efforts.
TED COOMBS, JASON COOMBS, and DON BREWER are principals in Science Org, a science and engineering research firm specializing in software development and advanced technologies. They are the developers of the PowerSocket Library, the first WinSock programming interface, and are the authors of The Netscape LiveWire Sourcebook (Wiley).
Visit our Web site at: http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/.
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