Dart Communications / VBX Controls (Visual Basic eXtension)

Dart Communications was founded in 1994 for the specific purpose of creating quality components designed to support Internet communication development. Dart's development teams carefully design each component for ease-of-use and maximum range of effectiveness for both beginners and advanced developers alike. The results are tools that function in many development environments, such as .NET, Visual Basic, Visual C++, PowerBuilder, ASP, Delphi, C++ Builder and Office. Dart's popular PowerTCP line includes components such as FTP, Mail, Zip Compression, SSL, SNMP, Web, Telnet, and Winsock. These components have enabled the efficient development of applications such as secure electronic trading by a major telecommunications company using an industry specific protocol, the creation of a multilingual bookstore that uses a custom web server without relying on IIS, centralized network management tools for the operation of multinational networks, and an automated database update for outside sales teams on the road. Other applications include adding capabilities to Microsoft Office such as the ability to auto-update an Excel application from an AS/400 server and automating Access to push the latest data to an FTP Server. : These are just a few of the projects the PowerTCP line has helped to create. Companies such as Chase Manhattan Bank, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, America Online, Compaq Computer, American Express, and thousands of consultants and individual project teams rely on Dart's quality code, breadth of capability, and customer service. Designed in object-oriented methods, the tools easily make the change from ActiveX to .NET framework, allowing these users to transition the product as appropriate for their own environments.

What is a VBX control? VBX Controls, short for Visual Basic eXtension, is the component model used in Microsoft Visual Basic 1.0, 2.0 & 3.0 as well as in the 16 bit version of Visual Basic 4.0, to extend the capability of the standard Visual Basic programming language. VBX Controls can be easily identified by their .VBX filename extension and are sometimes known as Visual Basic Custom Controls.

VBX Controls allow you to take user input on a VB form and use it to control how the form behaves, for example to enter data or click a button or toolbar. In this VBX Controls product gallery you will find a selection of VBX Controls for use in a 16 bit VB project. For example you will find: calendar VBX's for date entry, VBX button controls, toolbar VBXes, a VBX for data entry or data input, text editing VBXs, as well as a drawing VBX and a VBX for image display.

It is also possible to use the VBX component model for non-visual tasks, like sending email or receiving email using SMTP and POP3 and transferring files over the Internet using FTP or HTTP.