ActiveX Document Question

HOWTO: Test Your ActiveX Documents (.VBD)
Last reviewed: May 7, 1998
Article ID: Q168428
 
 


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The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Visual Basic Control Creation, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 5.0


SUMMARY
Visual Basic 5.0 introduces the ability to create ActiveX documents (.VBD files) for use with Internet browsers. This article will walk you step-by-step through creating a simple ActiveX document, show you how to test it while within the Visual Basic 5.0 development environment, then test it outside of the Visual Basic 5.0 development environment.

The power of the Internet is that potential users from all of the world will be able to hit and view your page. (The same applies to the Intranet, although on a smaller scale; users all over your corporation may be able to hit and view your web page). With this in mind, different users will have different configurations and different software installed on their PC's. When your ActiveX page is hit by an Internet user, Internet Explorer searches the local PC for all of the files required by the document. If a required file is present and has a version equal to or greater than the version you require, it uses it. If a file is missing or is older than the version required, Internet Explorer prompts the user to install the file and will proceed to do so.

While testing an ActiveX document, a problem occurs for developers because all of the required files are already installed onto the development machine. So how do you simulate a client's machine, one which has not been exposed to Visual Basic and the components you are using or which you've created? This article will also describe how to simulate such an environment.



MORE INFORMATION
To begin, you need to create a simple ActiveX document for testing purposes. If you already have an ActiveX document to test, proceed to the section "Testing Your Document Using Visual Basic 5.0" later in this article.



Creating a Simple ActiveX Document

Start Visual Basic 5.0, or select New Project from the File menu if Visual Basic 5.0 is already running. In the New Project dialog, select ActiveX Document EXE and click OK.

From the Project Window, open the User Documents folder and select UserDocument1. This User Document is created by default. View the properties for UserDocument1, change the (Name) property to MyTestDocument.

Add some intrinsic controls to MyTestDocument, such as a CommandButton, a Text Box, and a Label. You may modify the properties or add code to these controls as desired. These controls will be used so you can verify that the download of your ActiveX document succeeded.

From the Project menu, choose Project1 Properties. Change the Project Name to MyActiveXDocument. Click OK.

Save the Project. Save the user document MyTestDocument.Dob and also save the Project MyActiveXDocument.VBP.

Testing Your Document Using Visual Basic 5.0
The following steps assume you have Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.00 or later installed onto your system. To obtain the latest version of Internet Explorer be sure to visit the following Web site:


   http://www.microsoft.com/ie


If you created the simple ActiveX document above, keep the project open. If you are working with your own ActiveX document, open the desired project.

Click the Start button on the Visual Basic toolbar, or choose Start from the Run menu.
At this point, your document is ready to view with Internet Explorer. For testing purposes, Visual Basic 5.0 has created a .VBD file in the current working directory. This directory is usually where Visual Basic is installed. This file can now be viewed with Internet Explorer.


Open Internet Explorer.

In the Address box, type in the path to the .VBD file, which will have the same name as your project. For example, to open the simple ActiveX document created above, type the following:


      C:\Program Files\DevStudio\Visual Basic\MyTestDocument.VBD
NOTE: Your path to the .VBD file may be different, so modify the line above as appropriate.

The .VBD file should open in Internet Explorer, displaying any controls you added to the document and executing any code you've added to the project, as appropriate.

If this test worked, you can modify the project as desired, adding code, adding controls, etc. You may then continue to test the VBD file with Internet Explorer simply by running the project and viewing the VBD file with Internet Explorer.

NOTE: The VBD file is temporary; Visual Basic will delete the file when the project stops executing.


Creating Your Internet Download Setup
The following steps take you through the creation of your Internet download setup. If you have created your own ActiveX document (rather that using the example created above), substitute your ActiveX document name where necessary.


From the File menu, choose Make MyActiveXDocument.Exe. Create the executable file in the desired location.
NOTE: The executable file created is designed to execute as an ActiveX document within Internet Explorer. The file cannot be executed successfully by itself.


Exit Visual Basic 5.0.

Run the Application Setup Wizard. This Setup Wizard should be available from the Start menu, under Programs\Visual Basic 5.0.
If you are prompted with the "Setup Wizard - Introduction," click Next.


From the "Select Project and Options" step, click the Browse button to locate your ActiveX document project. If you created the example provided with this article, locate MyActiveXDocument.vbp.

Under "Options," choose to "Create Internet Download Setup." Click Next.

On the "Internet Distribution Location" step, select the location where you would like to place the files for Internet download and click Next. For testing purposes, "SWSETUP" may be sufficient.
NOTE: It is important to note that the folder must be accessible, with at least read-only access, from other machines on your network in order to test. In future deployments, you may wish to place the files created onto a web server.


For the "Internet Package" step, choose "Download from the Microsoft Web site."
NOTE: With this option selected, when a user hits your ActiveX document with Internet Explorer and needs a component installed, IE will go to the Microsoft Web site to install the latest version. If you would like information on how to use an alternate location, refer to the chapter on "Distributing Your Applications" in the Visual Basic 5.0 Programmer's Guide. You may desire to use an alternate location if you are developing an ActiveX document for an intranet where potential users may not have access to the World Wide Web.


For the remaining steps in the Setup Wizard, go with the defaults, clicking Next until you reach the final step.

On the final step, you may save the template if you prefer. When you are done, click Finish.

The Visual Basic Setup Wizard creates all of the files necessary for an Internet download. The next section of this article describes how to test the page.


Testing the Internet Download
As a developer, you may want to test the Internet Download from your own machine first. Remember, however, that because Visual Basic 5 is already installed on your machine, you know all of the necessary files are installed and the ActiveX document should load without incident. To test the document from the development machine, locate the Internet download files the Setup Wizard created. In the setup folder there will be an HTM file; if you created the example above this file will be named MyActiveXDocument.HTM. Simply double-click the file or locate it with Internet Explorer to open it.

The second test you should apply to your ActiveX document is testing it from a machine without Visual Basic 5.0 installed. If you do not have such a machine available to you for testing, refer to the "Simulating a Clean Machine" section of this article.

From a machine that does not have Visual Basic 5.0 installed, use Internet Explorer to locate and open the HTM file created by the Setup Wizard.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Before testing the ActiveX document, be sure the safety level in Internet Explorer is set to Medium or None. If the safety level is set to High, the required files will not get downloaded and the ActiveX document will not load. To check the security level in Internet Explorer, choose Options from the View menu. From the Options window, select the Security tab, and then click the Safety Level button.

If you set the Safety Level to None, all of the missing components will be installed without warning. If the Safety Level is set to Medium, the following warnings will occur:

First, you will be warned that an attempt to install the CAB file is being made if you created the example above you will be prompted to install MyActiveDocument.CAB. If you respond Yes, the MyActiveXDocument.Exe and MyActiveXDocument.INF will be installed onto the client machine in the Windows\OCCache folder.

Second, you will be asked if you wish to install Microsoft Automation. The Authenticode screen will display information about this component. If you respond Yes, a similar screen will warn you that the Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Run-time Library is going to be installed. Both of these components will be installed from the Microsoft Web site into the Windows\System folder (Windows\System32 folder on Windows NT).

Third, a script warning will appear warning the user that the HTM file contains scripting code. This code is necessary in order to view your ActiveX document.

These warnings are all part of the Internet Explorer's safety mechanisms. If you do not receive all of the above warnings, do not be alarmed. You may not receive a warning if a necessary component is already installed on the client machine or a security level option in Internet Explorer is set to something other than the defaults.

As part of testing, you may wish to test various Internet Explorer security settings to be sure your document loads as expected under varying circumstances.



Simulating a Clean Machine
As a developer, you should test your application on various machines with varying configurations. However, if you do not have a "clean machine" (one that does not have Visual Basic 5.0 or the Visual Basic 5.0 Run-time Library installed), the steps outlined below describe how to configure a development machine so that it behaves like a clean client. These steps may also be taken to clean a client machine that may have been previously exposed to your ActiveX document, Visual Basic 5.0, or the Visual Basic 5.0 Run-time Library.

WARNING: Before following the steps below to simulate a clean machine, be aware that unregistering, renaming, and deleting any of the following files could impact other applications installed onto your machine. For more information about undoing the steps provided here, see the "Restoring Your Machine" section of this article.

In order to clean a machine for testing an Internet download, you must begin by unregistering the Visual Basic 5.0 Run-time Library. This step will require a copy of REGSVR32.EXE. This file may be installed onto your development machine; if it is not, it may be found on the Visual Basic 5.0 installation CD-ROM.


From the Start menu, choose Run.

In the Run dialog, type in the following command;
"<PATH>\REGSVR32.EXE /U <Path to Windows folder>\System\MSVBVM50.DLL"

NOTE: If you are running on a Windows NT machine, the MSVBVM50.DLL is installed into the Windows\System32 folder.


Next, rename or delete the Visual Basic 5.0 Run-time Library.

From the Start menu, choose Find, and then select Files or Folder.

In the Find dialog, search the entire hard drive for files named MSVBVM50.DLL.
The file MSVBVM50.DLL may appear in more than one location; if it does, delete or rename the file located in the Windows\System folder (System32 on Windows NT platforms).


Next, the Microsoft Automation DLL must be deleted or renamed. Follow the steps outlined above for MSVBVM50.DLL, except locate and rename ASYCFILT.DLL, which will also be located in the Windows\System folder (System32 on Windows NT platforms). Do not delete other versions of this file if it is found in alternative locations.

Next, you must unregister and delete or rename any remaining dependency files installed on the client machine. These files will typically be custom controls that are used in the ActiveX document. For a list of the dependency files used by your ActiveX document, open the INF file created by the Setup Wizard and placed in the Support folder of the Internet Download setup.
The INF file will have a [Add.Code] section, listing the dependency files used by your ActiveX document. For example, the MyActiveXDocument.INF file created for the example in this article appears as follows:



      [Add.Code]
      MYACTIVEXDOCUMENT.EXE=MYACTIVEXDOCUMENT.EXE
      ASYCFILT.DLL=ASYCFILT.DLL
      MSVBVM50.DLL=MSVBVM50.DLL
The dependency files must be unregistered, if necessary, and deleted or renamed. The MyActiveXDocument.Exe file does not need to be unregistered. However, it will need to be deleted or renamed. Internet Explorer 3.x places this file into the \Windows\OCCache folder. Internet Explorer 4.0 places this file into the "\Windows\Downloaded Program Files" directory. If you are uncertain whether a file needs to be unregistered or not, you can run REGSVR32.EXE with the /U switch to determine whether or not it can be unregistered. If you receive an error, the file does not need to be unregistered.

NOTE: One file installed that is not listed in the [Add.Code] section is the INF file which is installed into the Windows\OCCache folder for each ActiveX document. This file will have the same name as the ActiveX EXE with an INF extension; for example, MyActiveDocument.INF. For a truly clean machine, this file would need to be deleted as well. However, not deleting the file will not have any adverse affects on the setup.

Other dependency files may include OCX files for custom controls or DLLs for various components. For example, if you used any of the Windows Common Controls in your application ,the Add.Code section of your INF file may appear as follows;



      [Add.Code]
      MYACTIVEXDOCUMENT.EXE=MYACTIVEXDOCUMENT.EXE
      ASYCFILT.DLL=ASYCFILT.DLL
      MSVBVM50.DLL=MSVBVM50.DLL
      COMCTL32.OCX=COMCTL32.OCX
In order to remove the COMCTL32.OCX file from the system, run:



      REGSVR32.EXE /U <PATH>\System\COMCTL32.OCX
This will unregister the control, then locate the file and either delete or rename it. Most of the custom controls that ship with Visual Basic 5.0 will install themselves into the Windows\System folder. Internet Explorer, however, will install some custom controls into the Windows\OCCache folder. You will need to be sure the path to the desired OCX is correct when using REGSVR32.EXE or else an error will occur.

This same procedure must be followed for every dependency file used by your ActiveX document.

Once all of the dependency files have been unregistered and renamed or deleted, open Internet Explorer and view your HTM page. When you view the HTM page, all of the missing components will automatically be downloaded and installed onto the user's machine.


Restoring Your Machine
Opening the HTM file as described in the last step of the previous section of this article will restore your machine to its original configuration. Internet Explorer will download and register each required file for you. However, if something should go wrong during the Internet download setup, you can reverse the changes made by restoring all of the original files and registering the necessary components.

Any file deleted or renamed would need to be renamed back to its original name or restored from the Windows Recycle Bin. If a file cannot be restored from the Windows Recycle Bin, an original may be found on the Visual Basic 5.0 CD-ROM (unless the file was provided by a third party, in which case you will need to restore the file from the appropriate location). Once the necessary files have been restored, you can run REGSVR32.EXE to register those files that were initially unregistered. For example, to register the Visual Basic 5.0 Run-time Library, execute the following command from the run dialog:


   REGSVR32 <Path to Windows>\System\MSVBVM32.DLL

Troubleshooting
This section addresses some of the problems you might encounter during the Internet Download setup.

Problem 1:

You receive one of the following error messages when you try to delete or rename the Visual Basic 5.0 Run-time Library:


      Cannot delete MSVBVM50.DLL: Access is denied.

      Cannot rename MSVBVM50.DLL: Access is denied.

Resolution 1:
You cannot delete a file while it is in use because Visual Basic 5.0 uses this file while it is running. Be sure Visual Basic 5.0 is not running when you attempt to delete this file. This error may also occur if Internet Explorer is currently or has recently viewed a Visual Basic 5.0 ActiveX Document. In this case, close Internet Explorer before attempting to delete the file.

Problem 2:

You receive the following error message:


      The dynamic link library could not be found in the specified path...

Resolution 2:
The ActiveX document file is still present on the machine. Delete or rename the ActiveX document file found in the Windows\OCCache folder and refresh the page. If you built the ActiveX document example in this article, the file would be named MyActiveXDocument.Exe.

Problem 3:

You receive the following error message:


   An error has occurred copying MSVBVM50.DLL. Ensure the location
   specified below is correct...C:\TEMP\ICD10E.TMP

The exact file names and paths may vary.
Resolution 3:

There is insufficient disk space on the target machine. Free up some disk space on the target machine and refresh the page.

Problem 4:

A dialog box with the following messages appear in Internet Explorer:


   Opening file <ActiveX Document>.VBD

   What would you like to do with this file?

   Open it or Save it to disk.

Resolution 4:
This error occurs because the Visual Basic 5.0 Run-time Library (MSVBVM50.DLL) is not installed. This will most likely occur if the Internet Explorer safety level is set to High. Set the Internet Explorer safety level to Medium or None.



REFERENCES
Visual Basic 5.0 Component Tools Guide, Chapter 5 "Creating an ActiveX Document"

Visual Basic 5.0 Programmer's Guide, Chapter 17 "Distributing Your Applications"
 

for chewhoung,

how about if there is data access involved using ODBC? Is it require that the client must have the ODBC Driver?

lansing

Off course.

you mean every client workstation must have a copy of the ODBC driver? Is there any alternative solution?

thanks

Yes and Nope.

Sorry, I am wrong. You do not need to install ODBC on every client on the net. Some other expert could help.

I think it will install ODBC automatically onto client's machine when a new client open the htm created with VB.

HOWTO: Use RDS Within a Visual Basic ActiveX Document
Last reviewed: August 14, 1998
Article ID: Q184630
 
 


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The information in this article applies to:
Remote Data Service for ADO versions 1.1, 1.5


SUMMARY
This article explains how to create an ActiveX document that uses the Remote Data Services of ADO (RDS) and how to distribute the document to Internet Explorer clients.



MORE INFORMATION


Create the Visual Basic ActiveX Document Client

Create a new Visual Basic (VB) ActiveX Document EXE project. Select the Project and name the project Rdsclient.

Place a Command button on the form.

Depending on the version of Internet Explorer the clients are using to access the ActiveX Document, the code may differ slightly. Internet Explorer version 4.01 includes the RDS 1.5 client components. When accessing Internet Explorer 4.01 the RDS.DataSpace or RDS.DataControl syntax is used.
If Internet Explorer 3.02 clients are accessing the ActiveX Document use the RDS 1.1 client components. Internet Explorer 3.02 does not include any RDS components and the Msadc11.cab file that includes the RDS 1.1 client components needs to be added to the resulting ActiveX Documents .inf file. The syntax you use for the Internet Explorer 3.02 clients is below:



      RDSIE3.DataSpace or RDSIE3.DataControl

Paste the following code into the General Declarations section of the project:


      Option Explicit


      Private Sub Command1_Click()
         Dim rs As Object   'Resultset
         Dim ds As Object   'RDS.DataSpace
         Dim df As Object   'RDSServer.DataFactory


         'For use with Internet Explorer 3.02
         'Set ds = CreateObject("RDSIE3.DataSpace")

         'For use with Internet Explorer 4.01
         Set ds = CreateObject("RDS.DataSpace")

         Set df = ds.CreateObject("RDSServer.DataFactory", _
            "http://<Server>")

         'This query returns a recordset over HTTP.
         Dim strCn As Variant, strSQL As Variant
         strCn = "dsn=advworks"
         strSQL = "Select * from Products"
         Set rs = df.Query(strCn, strSQL)
         MsgBox rs(0)     'Print 1 to MsgBox
      End Sub


Change the <Server> code to reflect the Internet Information Server (IIS) server where the ActiveX document and the RDS Server components will reside.

Save the ActiveX Document Project.


Creating an Internet Download Setup for the ActiveX Document

Exit Visual Basic 5.0. Use the Application Setup Wizard to package the ActiveX document for Internet download. From the Start menu, point to Programs, and then point to Visual Basic 5.0 and click "Application Setup Wizard".

Choose Browse and select the ActiveX Document project that you just created. By default, the program saves the application to the location where Visual Basic is installed. The name of the file is RdsClient.vbp. Select "Create Internet Download Setup" from the options, and then click Next.

Choose the destination location. This is where the setup files created by the Application Wizard are stored. The setup files consists of the .cab, .htm, .vbd files and a support folder.

Click Next, and then choose "Download from Microsoft Web site" for the run-time components. Click the safety button, and select the "Safe for Initialization" and "Safe for Scripting" check boxes, and then click OK. Click Next to continue to the next screen.

On the ActiveX Server Components screen, click Next.

Accept the default files for distribution and click Next.

Click Finish.

Copy the generated files (.cab, .htm, .vbd and the support folder) into the Webserver root directory.

If the Browser is Internet Explorer 3.02 you need to modify the resulting ActiveX Document .inf file to include a file named Msadc11.cab. This is because Internet Explorer 3.02 does not include the necessary client files required by Remote Data Service, while Internet Explorer 4.01 includes the files. Skip to the "Including the Msadc11.cab for Internet Explorer 3.02 Browsers" section for details on how to include the Msadc11.cab file.

Access the .htm file from the Browser via http as follows:


      http://<IIS server>/RdsClient.htm

You should be able to see the ActiveX document. Click the Command button and a message box showing the first recordset displays.

NOTE: Since the component is not signed, you will see warnings regarding the download of the component. Before the actual distribution of your application, you should have the components signed.



Including the Msadc11.cab for Internet Explorer 3.02 Browsers
The .inf file is in the Support folder created with the Visual Basic Setup Wizard. Modify the ActiveX Document .inf file as shown in the steps below.


In the Add.Code section, add the following DLL reference as the first DLL:


      [Add.Code]
      MSADCB11.DLL=MSADCB11.DLL

Add the following two tags after the Add.Code section:


      [MSADCB11.DLL]
      hook=msadc11.cab_Installer
      FileVersion=1,1,2022,0


      [msadc11.cab_Installer]
      file-win32-x86=msadc11.cab
      InfFile=msadc11.inf
NOTE: Make sure that you download the newest Msadc11.cab file available

         from the following Web site:

            http://www.microsoft.com/data/


Save the .inf file.

After editing the .inf file you need to re-cab your components. Although the Visual Basic Setup Wizard created a CAB file for your application, you must re-cab your components to reflect the changes in the .inf file. You can use Cabarc.exe to make your CAB file. You can find Cabarc.exe and the entire CAB SDK at the following Web site:


      http://www.microsoft.com/workshop/prog/cab/cabdl.htm
Download the SDK and extract it into the appropriate directory.


Locate the directory of the Cabarc.exe file. Add the appropriate files for the ActiveX Document project to this directory. This includes the ActiveX Doc.exe and the ActiveX Doc.inf created with the Visual Basic setup wizard.

Create your new CAB file. From the Command prompt you would type the following:


      CABARC n nameofyourcab.cab nameoftheActiveXDoc.exe nameoftheinf.inf

Move the new ActiveX Document CAB file along with the Msadc11.cab file into the Internet Information Server (IIS) directory.

Test the application. Access the .htm file from the Browser via http as follows:


      http://<IIS server>/RdsClient.htm

You should see the ActiveX document. Click the Command button and a message box showing the first recordset displays.


When using the new Msadc11.cab the following error message may display:

   Error registering the OCX c:\windows\occache\msadco.dll

This is a known bug in the CAB file and you can ignore the error. The Msadco.dll file is a RDS 1.5 client component that is referenced incorrectly in the Msadc11.cab. The error only displays the first time the client downloads the CAB file.


REFERENCES
This article is one of a series dealing with redistribution of MDAC components; ODBC, OLE DB, ADO, RDS, the MDAC Standalone, MDAC Redistribution and the Data Access SDK. The whitepaper "Redistributing Microsoft Data Access Components" presents a comprehensive overview of this subject, including referencing the content in this Knowledge Base article. This whitepaper is located at the following URL:


   http://www.microsoft.com/msdn/news/feature/datajul98/redistmdac.htm

For additional information, please see the following World Wide Web URL:

   http://www.microsoft.com/data/

For more information regarding RDS, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q174564
   TITLE     : HOWTO: Search for RDS Articles by Article Topic/Keyword

   ARTICLE-ID: Q182067
   TITLE     : INFO: Programmer's Guide to Using RDS in Visual Basic

   ARTICLE-ID: Q181092
   TITLE     : FAQ: Remote Data Service (RDS) Frequently Asked Questions

   ARTICLE-ID: Q168428
   TITLE     : HOWTO: Test Your ActiveX Documents (.VBD)

   ARTICLE-ID: Q176810
   TITLE     : HOWTO: Manually Modify and Rebuild CAB Files
 

Or use RDS as stated in above article.

additional 50 points

last one question, is Active Server Page included in WINNT 4 Option Pack.