Building ActiveX Servers in LabWindows/CVI

ActiveX Automation, formerly called OLE Automation, allows applications to make their unique features available to scripting tools and other applications. ActiveX is a generic term applied to a number of Microsoft technologies for developing components that you can reuse from various development environments. The following technologies are available:

• ActiveX Automation—Automate one application from within another application. For example, a LabWindows/CVI program can control Microsoft Word using ActiveX Automation.
• ActiveX Controls—Use stand-alone, interactive objects in external applications. For example, you can embed and use a Microsoft Calendar control or a Measurement Studio 3D Graph control in containers such as LabWindows/CVI panels.
• ActiveX Documents—View documents, such as Microsoft Word documents or Excel spreadsheets, in containers such as LabWindows/CVI panels.

An ActiveX server is the application that exposes its features. An ActiveX controller is the application that uses the features of an ActiveX server. An ActiveX server exports its features as a set of ActiveX objects. For example, Microsoft Excel exposes its workbooks, worksheets, and charts as ActiveX objects. Each ActiveX object provides methods and properties that other applications can access. For example, the Microsoft Excel worksheet object provides a calculate method that calculates the values in a worksheet.

Use the ActiveX Server Wizard to create an ActiveX server in LabWindows/CVI.

Related Topics

The remaining topics in this book discuss conceptual information important to understanding ActiveX servers and how to interact with them using the LabWindows/CVI ActiveX Library:

ActiveX and the Component Object Model

Generating Files and Code with the ActiveX Server Wizard

Managing Global Data in ActiveX Applications

Managing Objects in ActiveX Applications

Completing Advanced Object-Specific Tasks in ActiveX Applications

Building, Registering, and Distributing ActiveX Servers

COM Threading Models for ActiveX Applications

Debugging ActiveX Servers in LabWindows/CVI