ActiveX

ActiveX was one of the major technologies used in component-based software engineering.Cai, Xia, et al. "Component-based software engineering: technologies, development frameworks, and quality assurance schemes." Software Engineering Conference, 2000. APSEC 2000. Proceedings. Seventh Asia-Pacific. IEEE, 2000. Compared with JavaBeans, ActiveX supports more programming languages, but JavaBeans supports more platforms.{{cite web|last=Hughes|first=Merlin|title=JavaBeans and ActiveX go head to head|work=JavaWorld|publisher=IDG|url=http://www.javaworld.com/article/2077620/client-side-java/javabeans-and-activex-go-head-to-head.html|date=1 March 1997|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315144821/http://www.javaworld.com/article/2077620/client-side-java/javabeans-and-activex-go-head-to-head.html|archive-date=15 March 2016|df=dmy-all}} ActiveX is supported in many rapid application development technologies, such as Active Template Library, Delphi, JavaBeans, Microsoft Foundation Class Library, Qt, Visual Basic, Windows Forms and wxWidgets, to enable application developers to embed ActiveX controls into their products.

Many Microsoft Windows applications—including many of those from Microsoft itself, such as Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Visual Studio, and Windows Media Player—use ActiveX controls to build their feature-set and also encapsulate their own functionality as ActiveX controls which can then be embedded into other applications. Internet Explorer also allows the embedding of ActiveX controls in web pages.

Faced with the complexity of OLE 2.0 and with poor support for COM in MFC, Microsoft simplified the specification and rebranded the technology as ActiveX in 1996.{{cite web|url=http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4496 |title=Using ActiveX with LabVIEW – Examining Mission Editor Version 1.0 |access-date=12 March 2009 |date=13 August 2007 |work=NI Developer Zone |publisher=National Instruments |quote=The term ActiveX surfaced in the Microsoft world in early 1996. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080228174217/http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4496 |archive-date=28 February 2008 }}{{cite web|url=https://news.microsoft.com/1996/03/12/microsoft-announces-activex-technologies/|title=Microsoft announces ActiveX Technologies|access-date=11 February 2017|date=12 March 1996|work=News Center|publisher=Microsoft|quote=Microsoft Corp. today announced ActiveX … Technologies, which make it easy for the broadest range of software developers and Web designers to build dynamic content for the Internet and the PC. … ActiveX Technologies form a robust framework for creating interactive content using software components, scripts and existing applications. Specifically, ActiveX Technologies enable developers to build Web content easily using ActiveX Controls (formerly OLE Controls), active scripts and active documents. … ActiveX Technologies are available in the form of the Microsoft ActiveX Development Kit, which is being distributed to more than 4,000 developers attending the Professional Developers Conference in San Francisco today.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170212101109/https://news.microsoft.com/1996/03/12/microsoft-announces-activex-technologies/|archive-date=12 February 2017|df=dmy-all}} Even after simplification, users still required controls to implement about six core interfaces. In response to this complexity, Microsoft produced wizards, ATL base classes, macros and C++ language extensions to make it simpler to write controls.

Starting with Internet Explorer 3.0 (1996), Microsoft added support to host ActiveX controls within HTML content. If the browser encountered a page specifying an ActiveX control via an OBJECT tag (the OBJECT tag was added to the HTML 3.2 specification by Charlie Kindel, the Microsoft representative to the W3C at the time{{Cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/book4/ch02.html|title=Chapter 2|website=www.w3.org|access-date=2019-08-29}}) it would automatically download and install the control with little or no user intervention. This made the web "richer" but provoked objections (since such controls, in practice, ran only on Windows, and separate controls were required for each supported platform: one for Windows 3.1/Windows NT 3.51, one for Windows NT/95, and one for Macintosh M68K/PowerPC.) and security risks (especially given the lack of user intervention). Microsoft subsequently introduced security measures to make browsing including ActiveX safer.{{cite web |title=Activating ActiveX Controls |url=http://capitalhead.com/articles/activating-activex-controls.aspx |date=18 April 2006 |access-date=16 June 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20060419000000/http://capitalhead.com/articles/activating-activex-controls.aspx |archive-date=19 April 2006 |df=dmy-all }}

For example:

• digital signing of installation packages (Cabinet files and executables)
• controls must explicitly declare themselves safe for scripting
• increasingly stringent default security settings
• Internet Explorer maintains a blacklist of bad controls

ActiveX was controversial from the start; while Microsoft claimed programming ease and good performance compared to Java applets in its marketing materials, critics of ActiveX were quick to point out security issues and lack of portability, making it impractical for use outside protected intranets.{{cite news |title=ActiveX technology: You can't go there today |newspaper=InfoWorld |pages=90 ff |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zDsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA90|year=1997}} The ActiveX security model relied almost entirely on identifying trusted component developers using a code signing technology called Authenticode. Developers had to register with Verisign (US$20 per year for individuals, $400 for corporations) and sign a contract, promising not to develop malware. Identified code would then run inside the web browser with full permissions, meaning that any bug in the code was a potential security issue; this contrasts with the sandboxing already used in Java at the time.{{cite news |title=Exposing the ActiveX security model |first=Sean |last=Dugan |newspaper=InfoWorld |date=19 May 1997 |page=98 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zDsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA98}}

In October 1996, Microsoft released a beta version of the ActiveX Software Development Kit (SDK) for the Macintosh, including a plug-in for Netscape Navigator on the Mac, and announced its plan to support ActiveX on Solaris later that year.{{cite news |title=MacOS will get access to ActiveX |first=Tom |last=Quinlan |newspaper=InfoWorld |date=28 October 1996 |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NToEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA48}} Six months and two more beta releases later, there had yet to be any commercially available Macintosh ActiveX plugins.{{cite magazine

|url = http://www.macweek.com/mw_1115/nw_activex.html

|title = After 6 months, ActiveX passive in Mac market

|date = 11 April 1997

|volume = 11

|issue = 15

|magazine = MacWEEK

|first1=Joanna

|last1=Pearlstein

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/19970412151433/http://www.macweek.com/mw_1115/nw_activex.html

|archive-date = 12 April 1997

|df = dmy-all

}}

In 1997, NCompass Labs in cooperation with Microsoft released a plug-in for Netscape Navigator to support ActiveX.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_jDOuO-4ECOUC|quote=ncompass activex plugin.|title=Computerworld|date=1997-04-07|publisher=IDG Enterprise|language=en|chapter=Playing with plug-ins}}

Documentation for ActiveX core technology resides at The Open Group and may be read for free.{{cite web|title=Documentation for ActiveX Core Technology|url=https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9875999899/toc.htm|publisher=The Open Group|access-date=1 May 2020|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200430223442/https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9875999899/toc.htm|archive-date=30 April 2020|df=dmy-all}}

Despite Microsoft's previous efforts to make ActiveX cross-platform, most ActiveX controls would not and will not work on all platforms, so using ActiveX controls to implement essential functionality of a web page restricts its usefulness. The government of South Korea, in a software-agnostic gravitating move, started in circa 2015 to remove the technology from their public websites in order to make their website accessible to more platforms.{{cite web|url=http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2015/03/03/0200000000AEN20150303003300315.html|title=Seoul poised to remove ActiveX software from public websites|date=3 March 2015|publisher=Yohap News Agency|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150322231129/http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2015/03/03/0200000000AEN20150303003300315.html|archive-date=22 March 2015|df=dmy-all}}

While Microsoft made significant efforts to push the cross-platform aspect of ActiveX by way of publishing the API, ultimately the cross-platform effort failed due to the ActiveX controls being written in C or C++ and being compiled in Intel x86 Assembly language, making them executable only on Windows machines where they can call the standard Win32 APIs.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/1996/11/will-activex-threaten-national-security/|title=Will ActiveX Threaten National Security?|magazine=WIRED|access-date=2018-10-15|language=en-US}}

Microsoft dropped ActiveX support from the Windows Store edition of Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8. In 2015, Microsoft released Microsoft Edge [Legacy], the replacement for Internet Explorer, with no support for ActiveX; this event marked the end of ActiveX technology in Microsoft's web browser development.{{cite web|url=http://www.computerworld.com/article/2920892/web-browsers/microsoft-nixes-activex-add-on-technology-in-new-edge-browser.html|title=Microsoft nixes ActiveX add-on technology in new Edge browser|first=Gregg|last=Keizer|date=10 May 2015|work=Computerworld|publisher=IDG|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150514023235/http://www.computerworld.com/article/2920892/web-browsers/microsoft-nixes-activex-add-on-technology-in-new-edge-browser.html|archive-date=14 May 2015|df=dmy-all}} Microsoft [New] Edge, however, includes an "Internet Explorer mode" feature, which supports ActiveX.

• Mozilla ActiveX Control was last updated in late 2005, and runs in Firefox 1.5.{{cite web|url=http://www.adamlock.com/mozilla/|title=Mozilla Control|date=29 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429033120/http://www.adamlock.com/mozilla/|archive-date=29 April 2011}}
• ScriptActive for Netscape Navigator last updated in 1997 can run ActiveX controls but requires a special HTML tag.
• Running ActiveX scripts in Google Chrome is possible through the utilization of several extensions, including one which emulates an Internet Explorer tab within the Chrome application.{{Cite web |title=How To Enable ActiveX on Chrome |url=https://www.alphr.com/enable-activex-chrome/ |access-date=2022-08-07 |website=Alphr |language=en-US}}

Microsoft has developed a large number of products and software platforms using ActiveX objects. They are still used (e.g., websites still using ASP):

• Active Scripting (formerly known as ActiveX Scripting) is the technology used in Windows to bridge scripting engines like JScript, VBScript or ActivePerl and hosting applications like Internet Explorer, Active Server Pages, or third-party applications that implement a scripting host.
• ActiveX Document is a Microsoft technology that allows users to view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and PDF documents inside web browsers.
• Active Messaging, later renamed Collaboration Data Objects
• Active Server Pages (ASP)
• ActiveMovie, later renamed DirectShow
• ActiveX Data Objects (ADO)
• ActiveX Streaming Format (ASF), renamed Advanced Streaming Format, then to Advanced Systems Format

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|

• Active Setup
• Active Template Library (ATL)
• Adobe Flex
• Browser Helper Object (BHO)
• Google Native Client – an alternative development from Google
• IUnknown interface
• JavaBeans
• Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) – an alternative interface for web-browser plugins
• OLE Automation
• Silverlight (XAP)
• Windows DNA
• XAML Browser Applications (XBAP)

}}

{{reflist}}

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• [https://support.microsoft.com/kb/912812 Activating ActiveX Controls]

{{Microsoft APIs}}

{{Microsoft Windows components}}

{{Internet Explorer}}

{{Web interfaces}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Microsoft application programming interfaces

Category:Internet Explorer

Category:Software add-ons