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The
Story of ActiveX
The cornerstone of
Microsoft's Internet technology, ActiveX is quickly
becoming a burgeoning industry across the Web.
Used extensively across
the Internet computing environment, ActiveX controls are
being employed as site-enhancing objects, aids for
application development, and standalone programs.
Microsoft defines
ActiveX as a set of integration technologies that enable
software components to interoperate in a networked
environment using any language.
ActiveX is usable with
Internet Explorer versions 3.x and 4.x, however,
Netscape Navigator users can also view ActiveX controls
with the CaptiveX
plug-in from NCompass Labs.
Often compared and
contrasted with Java, ActiveX boasts a
"cumulative" advantage, in that every time you
visit a different Web page, the controls (or component
applications) you download are saved to your hard drive.
Java, on the other hand, requires you to download a
Java
applet each time you visit a page because applets are
not cached.
Java applets are also
limited in function in that they cannot interact with a
user's machine outside of a specified
"sandbox." Applets cannot write to your hard
drive or start-up an application residing on your
machine.
While ActiveX controls
have a much greater degree of freedom once downloaded to
your machine, this also presents an inherent security
risk. While increased interaction with your computer can
boost the level of functionality, it also provides no
safeguards against malicious code.
Instead, Microsoft has
banked on a system of trust, where developers of ActiveX
controls sign their work with a digital signature. Thus,
when you encounter an ActiveX control on the Web, you
can identify the author and choose whether to accept the
download.
Microsoft has installed
additional safeguards in its Internet Explorer browser,
giving you the choice of several different security
levels. At the default security level, you are warned
every time an ActiveX control is encountered, but still
allowed to download one if you choose.
Development of
competing technologies continues at a frenetic pace,
with Java from Sun Microsystems and Navigator Plug-ins
from Netscape and other companies.
Microsoft, itself, is
expanding upon its ActiveX foundation with a new
technology dubbed DNA (Distributed Network
Architecture). Basically, with DNA, Microsoft is hoping
to move its operating systems, object models and
development tools into the network computing landscape.
In addition, Microsoft is using Dynamic HTML to extend
DNA outside the Windows world and into the realm of
e-mail and other applications.
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