Greetings,

I am building a browser based application that will run within an intranet
(IE5 on PCs).  The application must have a rich user interface, therefore I
plan to use my favorite ActiveX components.  The application will also use
COM+ objects as business layer and a SQL Server backend.

For COM+ objects I can use VB.

The question which is the best tool for the user interface ??
(a) ActiveX Document (using VB6)
(b) DHTML Application (using VB6)
(c) ASP (using VI)

Thanks,
John Hamilton

John,

A combination of ASP and DHTML is the best route to go.  ASP will talk to
your COM+ components on the server to get the data for your pages, and after
mixing in some HTML and JavaScript you'll get your rich DHTML interface.
You can access the ActiveX components on the user's IE5 machines by using
JavaScript's new operator and then talking to the object's methods and
properties:

var objHTTP = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
objHTTP.open("POST", "yourpage.asp", false);
objHTTP.send();

VB's implementation of DHTML requires an extra DLL to be downloaded to each
client machine... for each page.  Granted, it might be easier to work with
the VB IDE *if* that's what you're most familiar with, but it's more
overhead and less reliable (if there's a bug in VB's implementation of DHTML
then you're stuck with that bug... that never happens with Microsoft right?
;-)

Also, you can't dynamically build your VB-DHTML pages using ASP.  You'll
most likely want to customize the information shown on the page and you'll
need ASP to process the information on the server while the page is being
built.   You can't do this with just the VB-DHTML implementation because VB
needs to compile the DLL based on the page template you build.

VB's attempt at building helpful web tools is not practical in a production
environment (kind of like all the supposedly handy data bound controls that
totally suck in a real multi-user/tier application).  The IIS Applications
are a distribution/installation *nightmare* and the DHTML Applications
require an extra DLL and only run on IE5.  The user gets prompted to
download the DLL to top it all off.  My recommendation: stay away from VB
for Internet work.  JavaScript is simple to learn and Microsoft has
excellent support for the DHTML objects/methods/events/etc at
 http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/c-frame.htm#/workshop/author/defau...

Best of luck,

--
Rick Palmer
Sr Software Engineer, MCP
STEP Technology Inc
http://www.steptech.com

Hello John!

Thanks for posting the question.

As you know, using ActiveX Documents (or embedding ActiveX Control on the
DHTML page), you will have a very rich user interface and you can do many
more things that a Windows Application can do but pure DHTML/ASP page can't
(for example accesses to windows API, etc.). If you are already comfortable
with VB, you may find it relatively easy to develop in ActiveX
Documents/DHTML Applications.

Developing in ActiveX Documents is much like developing in traditional VB
applications. So this might be the safest bet, if you short on development
time. However, let me caution here: sometimes deployment of ActiveX
Documents becomes an irritant if not properly handled.

DHTML applications using VB are again easy to do - but before you embark on
your full-fledged application, I would strongly recommend you developing
prototype the application to see if it meets your requirements.

Using Visual InterDev - ASP or DHTML - is also easy and this is the best
tool if you are not familiar with VB are and want to concentrate only on
Web Development. Depending on if you how much server side or client side
processing you want to and considering network bandwidth, you may go for a
combination of ASP and client-side processing application.

Since you want to use COM+ objects and SQL Server, I presume it will
involve ASP at least to some extent. May be you are already aware of this,
but it might come handy:

COM+ Overview for Microsoft Visual Basic Programmers
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdn-online/start/features/complus4vb.asp

Long term, you really want to develop Windows DNA Web Applications,
following links might be helpful:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/centers/scale/default.asp#building
http://www.microsoft.com/dna/about/whitepapers/dna2000.asp

Thank you,
Sarath K Mallavarapu, MCSD
Internet Client Team Technical Lead (VB), Microsoft Developer Support
For information on Internet Client Development, please visit
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/default.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/c-frame.htm#/workshop/author/defau...

Erm, I agree with pretty much everything you mentioned here except this one
thing.  I do prefer Javascript on the client side, but comparing VB to
Javascript (as opposed to comparing VBScript to Javascript) is comparing
apples with oranges.  Someone who already knows VB has absolutely no need to
learn Javascript if he wants to do client-side DHTML scripting with ASP on
the server, he just needs to learn what VBScript can and can't do that VB
can't and can do.  If he wants, he can extend his skill set and dive into
Javascript, but 99% of the time it's unnecessary.

Jon

Good point Jon.  Since the original post mentioned that this was going to be
used on an IE5 Intranet, then a VB developer can leverage his VB knowledge
and use client-side VBScript instead of JavaScript.

However, if it ever gets migrated to an Internet or Extranet application
where other browsers might be used, then all the VBScript code would need to
be replaced by JavaScript, since VBScript is not supported on Netscape and
other non-IE browsers.

--
Rick

http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/c-frame.htm#/workshop/author/defau...

Alright, now you've gone and made me happy. :\

:p

http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/c-frame.htm#/workshop/author/defau...

this is from MSDN:

"The advantages of creating and deploying ActiveX documents are:

1.You can leverage your knowledge of Visual Basic. If you are skilled
in programming Visual Basic, you already have the knowledge to reach
your goals you do not have to learn another programming language (as
you do to create an HTML page).

2. You can leverage the Visual Basic programming environment. The full
development environment is available to you, including the Visual Basic
code window, de{*filter*}, and compiler.

3. Ability to create ActiveX documents that run in Internet Explorer.
For all intents and purposes, an ActiveX document is a Visual Basic
application that is now accessible in a widely-used container.

4. Execution on a local machine. The ActiveX component can contain all
the necessary code to deliver the results of complex calculations.

5. Immediate visual feedback about layout of elements. Placing TextBox
and CommandButton controls on an ActiveX document gives you immediate
feedback about how the document will look. In contrast, coding an HTML
document takes practice and guesswork.

6. Support for the Hyperlink object, which allows an ActiveX document
to request that the container (if it is Hyperlink-aware) to navigate to
another ActiveX document, or a Web site.

7. Support for the AsyncRead method. The method begins an asynchronous
transfer of data, allowing other code to execute while the data is
retrieved.

Note   There is one control that cannot be placed on an ActiveX
document: the OLE Container Control. Also note that embedded objects,
such as an Microsoft Excel or Word documents, are not allowed on
ActiveX documents."

hope this helps.

Bob

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