Imaging / ActiveX Components (ActiveX Controls, COM Objects & OLE Objects) / Microsoft Access (Tools & Add-ins, Controls & Components)

ActiveX Components (ActiveX Controls, COM Objects & OLE Objects)

Microsoft first introduced the term ActiveX in 1996 when they launched a downloadable user interface control or software component that could be used by Internet Explorer to give more interactive or active content on a Web page to the reader. ActiveX controls were a re-branded subset of OLE custom controls (OCX) or OLE controls (OCXes) that were streamlined for downloading over the Internet and that could be digitally signed for security and authentication reasons. These ActiveX downloads were also tagged or marked as being safe for scripting and safe for initialization, to help give users confidence in using them in ActiveX Internet apps, as they were less likely to start making unauthorized actions on their systems. ActiveX controls also supported threading models, such as Apartment Model Threading, to try and improve performance in a multi-user or multi-process environment.

OLE controls (OCX's) or Object Linking and Embedding controls were themselves the successor to VBX controls first introduced by Microsoft to help programmers extend the functionality and features of their Visual Basic program by buying and reusing a VBX control built by another programmer or company, with expertise in a specific area. VBXes were limited to 16 bit usage for example on Windows 3.x, OCXes were available for both 16 bit or 32 bit architectures and began being widely used as people adopted Windows 95, although most people tended to use VBXes on 16-bit systems and OCX controls or OLE components on 32-bit systems for performance reasons. OLE itself was based on earlier work by Microsoft in their Office products to allow data to be exchanged and reused as objects inside other documents or files, such as embedding an Excel spreadsheet in a Word document and updating the content of that Excel spreadsheet for display using Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). Hence the term OLE document, that is still in use today.

OLE was part of the Microsoft COM or Component Object Model, that enabled programmers to reuse software components and services in a logical and object oriented manner. COM was extended and expanded over the years to include DCOM, the Distributed Component Object Model that allowed programmers to call OLE objects or COM objects situated on other computers or servers. COM+ was added to support transaction services using technologies such as Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) and this first appeared when Windows 2000 was launched to better support distributed transactions in more complex applications, where higher performance and throughput was required. COM has gradually become a common term used to refer to: COM, DCOM, COM+, OLE and ActiveX technologies in general.

ActiveX components can be created in a variety of object oriented programming languages, but are most commonly created using C++ and the Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC), such as: MFC 4.0, MFC 4.2 and MFC 6.0. When VB 5 was released in became possible for a Visual Basic programmer to create an ActiveX component for reuse by other people and whilst most programmers claim that the best ActiveX components were written in Visual C++ or by utilizing the ActiveX Template Library, it did not stop some entrepreneurial developers from Janus Systems writing one of the bestselling ActiveX UI controls of all time in VB5 and VB6, called Janus GridEx, a VB6 ActiveX, that gives the look and feel of the Microsoft Outlook UI inside your app.

ActiveX components and ActiveX controls come with a variety of file extensions such as: .exe, .dll and .ocx and these denote a certain type of usage either in-process as part of your program or app (an ActiveX DLL), or out-of-process as a standalone executable (an ActiveX Exe), as an ActiveX control or OCX control mainly used as a UI control on a form or page. Downloadable ActiveX controls are also packaged as .cab files or Cabinet files. These CAB files are packages of files compressed to take up less space and hence can be downloaded more efficiently over the Internet.

In this ActiveX Component gallery you will find a variety of commercial products that are ActiveX objects or ActiveX controls that people sometime refer to as VB controls or as a VB object, as they are often used within Visual Basic. You will find ActiveX Windows components that allow you to carry out visuals tasks, such as an ActiveX UI control for displaying video or images, an ActiveX image control or a non-Visual ActiveX upload component that will allow you to push a file up onto a server over the Internet using HTTP or FTP protocols.

Related News

Royalty-free image viewers now available
GdImageBox OCX and GdImageBox Pro ActiveX support popular image formats including GIF, JPEG, HDR, PNG, PSD and TIFF. May 25, 2010

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1. GdImageBox OCX

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Publisher: GdPicture Primary Category: Imaging Product Type: Component / ActiveX OCX

A royalty-free Image Viewer component that can display most popular image formats. GdImageBox OCX is a royalty-free image viewer component that can display popular image formats like TIFF, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WMF, BMP, WBMP, PCX, PNM, PFM, J2K, JP2, HDR, JBIG, PSD, TGA, JNG, EXR, DDS, PPM, SGI, PBM, PGM, XBM, XPM, KOALA and IFF. GdImageBox OCX can be used within any 32-bit and 64-bit Windows development environment that supports ActiveX components, including Visual Basic 6 and Visual Studio .NET languages, Delphi and MS Access. Using GdImageBox OCX, you can view, zoom and rotate images, zoom in on a specific area, loop animated gifs, display multi-page tiff files, use the keyboard & mouse to scroll down and across images, select the display quality mode and read image exif metadata, including TIFF, GPS and THUMBNAIL tags. GdImageBox OCX does not include the Image viewer container class: GdImageBoxCnt (This is similar to a VB PictureBox in that it can contain other controls placed within it). GdImageBoxCnt is included in GdImageBox Pro ActiveX.
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2. GdImageBox Pro ActiveX

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Publisher: GdPicture Primary Category: Imaging Product Type: Component / ActiveX OCX

A royalty-free Image Viewer component that can display most popular image formats. GdImageBox Pro ActiveX is a royalty-free Image Viewer ActiveX control for developers who need to support popular graphic image formats like TIFF, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WMF, BMP, WBMP, PCX, PNM, PFM, J2K, JP2, HDR, JBIG, PSD, TGA, JNG, EXR, DDS, PPM, SGI, PBM, PGM, XBM, XPM, KOALA and IFF. Using GdImageBox Pro ActiveX, you can view, zoom and rotate, define a display area, zoom in on an area, play animated gifs, display multi-page tiff files, define your own zoom in or zoom out values, use the keyboard to scroll down and across images, and set an anti-aliasing & smoothing display mode. GdImageBox Pro ActiveX can be used within any Windows development environment that supports ActiveX components, like Visual C++, VB6, Visual Foxpro, Delphi, Visual Studio .NET, VB.NET, MS Access and WinDev. GdImageBox Pro ActiveX includes an Image viewer container class: GdImageBoxCnt. This is similar to a VB PictureBox in that it can contain other controls placed within it.
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3. GdViewer Pro ActiveX

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Publisher: GdPicture Primary Category: Imaging Product Type: Component / ActiveX OCX

A royalty Free Image and PDF Viewer. GdViewer Pro ActiveX is a royalty free Image Viewer ActiveX and PDF Viewer ActiveX control. GdViewer Pro ActiveX functionality includes: view, zoom, print, rotate, define display area, zoom on area, play animated gif, display multi pages tiff files, display PDF files, set antialiasing & smoothing display mode and more. GdViewer Pro can be used on any 32-bit and 64-bit Windows development environment that support ActiveX / COM components, including Visual Basic 6, VBA, Visual C++, Delphi, Visual FoxPro, PHP, ASP, Access, Windev, PowerBuilder, PowerBasic and more.
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4. ImageX

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Publisher: Fath Software Primary Category: Imaging Product Type: Component / ActiveX OCX / ActiveX DLL

Add image viewing, printing and conversion to your applications. ImageX control easily adds image view, print, create and convert capabilities to your applications. ImageX supported file formats include BMP, DIB, GIF, TIF, PCX, EMF, WMF, PSD and more. ImageX can be used to create an image viewer, to create a full-featured graphics editor application, to acquire/scan images from TWAIN devices or to create windows icons among many uses. C#, VB.NET, VB 6, HTML, ASP, MS Access samples included.
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5. GdPicture.NET

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Publisher: GdPicture Primary Category: Image Processing Product Type: Component / .NET Class / ActiveX OCX / ActiveX DLL

Add advanced image processing to your applications. GdPicture.NET is a suite of document imaging toolkits delivered as .NET components enabling developers to compose, display, capture, edit and print documents into .NET applications including ASP.NET web applications. With GdPicture.NET your programs will be able to display documents, acquire image from TWAIN scanners, make image processing, perform optical characters recognition and many other features covering all mainstream areas of document imaging. GdPicture.NET technology supports more than 90 vector and bitmap image formats from 1-bit to 128-bit including High Dynamic Range images, JPEG2000, JBIG, JBIG2, PSD, JPEG, TIFF, PNG and RAW camera. GdPicture.NET can be used on any 32-bit and 64-bit Windows development environment that supports .NET components such as Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and CodeGear RAD Studio. GdPicture PDF plugin, GdPicture XMP Annotation plugin, GdPicture JBIG2 Encoder plugin, GdPicture Forms Processing plugin, GdPicture OCR Tesseract Engine plugin, GdPicture 1D Barcode Reader plugin and GdPicture DataMatrix Recognition plugin are included free of charge in GdPicture.NET 8 Ultimate Edition. You can also buy GdPicture Plugins separately to extend the functionality of any other GdPicture.NET SDK.
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6. GdPicture.NET Upgrades

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Publisher: GdPicture Primary Category: Image Processing Product Type: Component / .NET Class / ActiveX OCX / ActiveX DLL

Add advanced image processing to your applications. GdPicture.NET is a suite of document imaging toolkits delivered as .NET components enabling developers to compose, display, capture, edit and print documents into .NET applications including ASP.NET web applications. With GdPicture.NET your programs will be able to display documents, acquire image from TWAIN scanners, make image processing, perform optical characters recognition and many other features covering all mainstream areas of document imaging. GdPicture.NET technology supports more than 45 vector and bitmap image formats from 1-bit to 128-bit including High Dynamic Range images, JPEG2000, JBIG, PSD, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, etc. GdPicture.NET can be used on any 32-bit and 64-bit Windows development environment that supports .NET components such as Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and CodeGear RAD Studio. GdPicture.NET is Royalty Free. Also available are GdPicture Tesseract Plugin, that is a royalty free OCR Engine for use with GdPicture Imaging SDK Toolkits and GdPicture DataMatrix Barcode Recognition Plugin is a low-cost, fast, accurate and royalty-free DataMatrix Barcode Recognition Engine for developing applications using GdPicture Imaging SDK Toolkits. Please, note that OCR, barcode recognition and Datamatrix Barcode recognition require the additional purchase of GdPicture Tesseract Plugin, GdPicture 1D Barcode Recognition Plugin and GdPicture DataMatrix Barcode Recognition Plugin.
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7. ImagXpress Professional ActiveX

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Publisher: Accusoft (formerly Pegasus Imaging Corp.) Primary Category: Image Processing Product Type: Component / ActiveX OCX / VC++ Class Library

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8. ImagXpress Standard ActiveX

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Publisher: Accusoft (formerly Pegasus Imaging Corp.) Primary Category: Image Processing Product Type: Component / ActiveX OCX / VC++ Class Library

Perform image compression, decompression, and file conversion with support for over 30 popular image file formats. The ImagXpress ActiveX SDK lets you quickly add imaging functions to your Windows application. With Accusoft Pegasus' powerful imaging tools, you can quickly develop applications that require complex imaging tasks for document imaging, photo processing, or medical applications, while you concentrate on the unique needs of your program. ImagXpress is the image handling engine behind most of Accusoft Pegasus' advanced recognition and image processing products. It's one of the fastest ways to develop professional applications involving images. ImagXpress Standard ActiveX offers a solid set of basic image viewing, printing, scanning, and processing features. Viewing tools, image effects and basic image enhancement are included. Document image cleanup and annotation support are not provided. Includes the ImagXpress, ThumbnailXpress, and TwainPRO components.
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9. ImagXpress View

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Publisher: Accusoft (formerly Pegasus Imaging Corp.) Primary Category: Image Processing Product Type: Component / .NET WinForms / ActiveX OCX / VC++ Class Library

Add high speed image viewing and printing to your desktop, intranet, or web application. ImagXpress View is ideal for applications requiring only image viewing and printing features, when saving images is not required. ImagXpress View delivers Pegasus Imaging's advanced image viewing and printing technology as .NET and COM controls for integration within visual development environments. Designed to serve "view only" imaging requirements, developers can rapidly build applications to view and print images including annotations. Users may view multi-page TIFF and embedded-image PDFs. ImagXpress View includes all the viewing features of ImagXpress Document. In addition, this toolkit includes a thumbnail image control, annotation display, and advanced printing capabilities beyond Internet Explorer.
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10. ImagXpress Photo

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Publisher: Accusoft (formerly Pegasus Imaging Corp.) Primary Category: Image Processing Product Type: Component / .NET WinForms / ActiveX OCX / VC++ Class Library

Add professional photo imaging toolkit to your application. ImagXpress Photo is ideal for the development of photo management software, online photo services, kiosk applications, and more. It delivers vendor-specific Camera RAW and Pegasus Imaging's JPEG file support. .NET and COM developers can build applications with image viewing, editing, clean up, thumbnail image support, auto red eye removal, alpha channel support, auto color level, auto contrast, image filtering, EXIF tag editing, color matching, color space conversion, photo collage layout and printing, color image deskew, dust/scratch removal, removal, file format conversion, compression, and more. ImagXpress Photo also contains sophisticated TWAIN scanning support, annotation capabilities, and advanced printing capabilities beyond Internet Explorer.
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Imaging / ActiveX Components (ActiveX Controls, COM Objects & OLE Objects) / Microsoft Access (Tools & Add-ins, Controls & Components)

ActiveX Components (ActiveX Controls, COM Objects & OLE Objects)

Related News

Royalty-free image viewers now available

1. GdImageBox OCX

Publisher: GdPicture Primary Category: Imaging Product Type: Component / ActiveX OCX

2. GdImageBox Pro ActiveX

Publisher: GdPicture Primary Category: Imaging Product Type: Component / ActiveX OCX

3. GdViewer Pro ActiveX

Publisher: GdPicture Primary Category: Imaging Product Type: Component / ActiveX OCX

4. ImageX

Publisher: Fath Software Primary Category: Imaging Product Type: Component / ActiveX OCX / ActiveX DLL

5. GdPicture.NET

Publisher: GdPicture Primary Category: Image Processing Product Type: Component / .NET Class / ActiveX OCX / ActiveX DLL

6. GdPicture.NET Upgrades

Publisher: GdPicture Primary Category: Image Processing Product Type: Component / .NET Class / ActiveX OCX / ActiveX DLL

7. ImagXpress Professional ActiveX

Publisher: Accusoft (formerly Pegasus Imaging Corp.) Primary Category: Image Processing Product Type: Component / ActiveX OCX / VC++ Class Library

8. ImagXpress Standard ActiveX

Publisher: Accusoft (formerly Pegasus Imaging Corp.) Primary Category: Image Processing Product Type: Component / ActiveX OCX / VC++ Class Library

9. ImagXpress View

Publisher: Accusoft (formerly Pegasus Imaging Corp.) Primary Category: Image Processing Product Type: Component / .NET WinForms / ActiveX OCX / VC++ Class Library

10. ImagXpress Photo

Publisher: Accusoft (formerly Pegasus Imaging Corp.) Primary Category: Image Processing Product Type: Component / .NET WinForms / ActiveX OCX / VC++ Class Library

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