by Weiying Chen
Microsoft has unveiled an extensive new solution technology for the Internet called ActiveX. Microsoft ActiveX is a broad and powerful abstraction for Microsoft Internet Solutions. Content providers and Internet application developers now have a robust and extensible frameworks that enables them to develop a new generation of Internet applications.
Microsoft is aggressively adding features to the Win32 Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that will let developers "Internet-enable" their applications. These new features are based on Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology so that developers who have made investments into Win32 and OLE applications can leverage their investments.
ActiveX exposes a set of APIs that enables developing a new generation of client/server applications for the Internet. ActiveX has interfaces to integrate almost every media technology within an application. It provides extensive support for animation, 3D virtual reality, real-time audio, and real-time video.
ActiveX gives developers an open framework for building innovative applications for the Internet. ActiveX technologies form a robust framework for creating interactive content using reusable components, scripts, and existing applications. Specifically, ActiveX technologies enable content providers and application developers to create powerful and dynamic Web content and Web server extensions quite easily. This feat is achieved by using ActiveX controls, Active client and server side scripts, and the Active document interfaces and ISAPI (Internet Server Application Programming Interface).