Hi,
What is an ActiveX method.

Thanks,
Prasath.K

Hi,

It's just not possible to give a clear technical definition of what the term ActiveX means. The reason for this is simple: ActiveX is a marketing label, not a technical term. The clearest way to think about it is to view ActiveX as a brand name, like, say, Chevrolet. General Motors assigns the Chevrolet brand to a varied collection of cars, and what that collection includes changes over time. Still, all Chevrolets have some common elements, and assigning them all a common name makes GM's marketing task easier. Over the years, GM has built brand recognition and loyalty to Chevrolet in their customers' minds.

Microsoft is trying to do the same thing with ActiveX. There are many technologies grouped under this label, and exactly what those technologies are changes over time. Still, all of them have something in common--they all use COM--and Microsoft has been doing their level best to build equity in the form of customer recognition and loyalty around the ActiveX brand name.

It's tempting to define ActiveX as the set of all technologies that use COM. Sadly, this definition doesn't really work. The reason is that most Microsoft software today uses COM in some way, including Word, Excel, and even Windows 95 and Windows NT. Nobody is willing to argue that all of these products fall under the ActiveX umbrella.

When the term was first introduced in early 1996, it was used to refer to technologies that were somehow associated with the Internet and the World Wide Web, and the label still retains much of that flavor. Today, though, Microsoft includes COM itself as part of ActiveX, and there's nothing at all Internet-centric about COM. Once again, the only accurate perspective is to think of ActiveX as a flexible brand name. This generality notwithstanding, it's still possible to group today's most visible ActiveX technologies into four broad categories: fundamental technologies, component software support, middleware, and Web-related technologies.

Hope Informative...

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