.NET + ActiveX Controls = ?

[Jeff Stewart]

In the age of .NET, where to ActiveX Controls, specifically those embedded
in web pages, fit? Are such controls still considered a viable option for
enabling web browser functionality beyond what IE ships with? I've got a
project that requires a web page to extract data from a custom piece of
hardware on the client's machine, store it server-side, and present analyses
of the data to the client. Put simply, the "application" that the device is
paired with must be web-based, not... um, "client-based" (HD-based...
"setup.exe"-based... "traditional").

 

[John Spiegel]

Hey Jeff,

What you're talking about the whole idea behind "runtime callable wrappers"
(RCWs). They are proxies that "wrap" a COM object, allowing a .NET
CLR-compliant interface to a non-.NET object. While there are tools to make
building these easier (take a look at tlbimp.exe), MS made it pretty simple
by allowing you to add a reference to COM objects in your project.

In your particular case, there's pretty much no change over ASP in that
aside from some variances in how the client-side scripting should show up in
your aspx files, there's not really a whole bunch that's occurred in how
client-side scripting works, so if you're dealing mainly with client side,
there shouldn't really be much variation on how the control itself is
handled.

- John