Active Technology on the Internet

Active technology is an open platform that lets developers create exciting, dynamic content and applications for the global Internet, or for a company's internal network, known as an intranet. The major technologies provided by Microsoft for Internet programming are described below.

Important

ActiveX is a legacy technology that should not be used for new development. For more information about modern technologies that supersede ActiveX, see ActiveX Controls.

ActiveX Controls

ActiveX controls (formerly OLE controls) are objects that can be inserted into Web pages or any other application that is an ActiveX control container. Examples include buttons, stock tickers, and chart controls. For more information, see ActiveX Controls on the Internet.

Internet Data Download Services

Data can be downloaded over the Internet using common protocols: HTTP, FTP, and gopher. The MFC WinInet classes make it easy to transfer data using HTTP, FTP, and gopher protocols by abstracting the TCP/IP and WinSock protocols. The MFC asynchronous moniker classes provide a way to download files without blocking and to render large objects asynchronously. For more information, see Win32 Internet Extensions (WinInet).

Active Scripts

VBScript and other scripting languages connect controls and add interactive functionality to Web pages. Scripting moves processing from the server to the client. For example, form entries can be validated on the client and then sent to the server.

HTML Extensions

HTML extensions, such as the object tag, have been added to support controls and scripting.

See also

MFC Internet Programming Basics
ActiveX Controls on the Internet
Win32 Internet Extensions (WinInet)