ActiveX with VBScript combines many of the capabilities of JavaScript and Java:
-
ActiveX controls and VBScript subroutines are put right into the HTML pages.
-
They can directly access properties of the browser.
-
VBScript can also be used as a general object-oriented programming language.
|
|
Many useful ActiveX controls and VBScripts, such as using a button to control other elements of the web page, are "built-in" to the Internet Explorer. Other user-written controls would have to be downloaded to the client machine.
|
ActiveX controls reside directly on the client machine and do not have the same built-in security restrictions of Java/JavaScript. Before a control is downloaded a "Certificate Page" is presented to the user, giving information about the author or certifiying organization of this control. If the user trusts this author or organization, then he or she can continue the download.
-
At the JavaOne conference, Sun demonstrated how to write an ActiveX control that would wipe out the client's disk when downloaded!
|
