2. Projects Using  Intrinsic and Professional ActiveX Controls(1)

Adding ActiveX Controls to the Toolbox:

In order to add one or more ActiveX controls to the Toolbox,  select the item ‘Components’ from the Project menu.   The Components Dialog Box will appear on the screen as shown in the figure 3.   Select the required control by clicking on the rectangular box at the beginning.   After selecting the required controls, click OK.    The icons of the selected controls will now appear on the Tool box and you can use them just as you will use any other intrinsic ActiveX control.

                                        Figure 3

 Functions of Some important ActiveX Controls:

We give below a list of some important ActiveX controls added in the Professional Edition of VB-6.   This is in addition to the intrinsic controls already introduced in earlier versions.  

1. The Common Dialog Control  enables the users to create Dialog Boxes (open, save, print, setup, font, help and so on) in their own applications.

2. The Animation Control  enables the users to play silent avi files producing animation appropriate to the operations performed.

3. The Communication Control  describes how to use it with a modem to dial a phone number, interact with another modem or add advanced communication functionality to your applications.

4. The Internet Transfer Control enables the users to transfer files to and from a remote computer using TCP or FTP protocols.

5. The ListView  Control enables the users to organize and view the data in deifferent ways using the View Property.

6. The MAPI Control  enables the users to sign-on to an electronic messaging system, access an Inbox, send or receive messages or send file attachments.

7. The Masked -Edit Control  enables the users to create mask platforms that prompt them for date, time currency or customized data input.

8. The MSChart Control enables users to create barchrts, assign and edit backdrops and load data from an array.

9. The Multimedia Control enables the users to control and manage t5he recording playback of a variety of multimedia using a simple push-button interface.

10. The PictureClip Control enables the users to create an image resource for other Visual Basic Controls by storing multiple images in a single image resource and then retrie3ving individual images by ‘clipping’ specific regions.

11. The ProgressBar Control enables the users to get a feedback about a lengthy operation by pictorially displaying a moving coloured bar.

12. The RichTextBox Control  enables the users to get word-processing features in a TextBox.

13. The Slider Control  enables the users to select a range of data between a maximum and a minimum setting.

14. The StatusBar Control  enables the users to display text and images in the Status Bar. 

15. The Sysinfo Control  enables the users to determine the current operating system, how to monitor and respond to Plug and Play events or changes in AC and battery power status.

16. The Tabbed Dialog Control enables the users to present several dialogs or screens of information on a single form using the same interface.

17. The ToolBar Control  enables the users to reconfigure the Toolbar by setting the AllowCustomize property.

18. The TabStrip Control enables the users to create tabs by adding tab objects to the tab collection.  Use an imagelist controlo to supply bitmaps for the tabs.  

19. The TreeView Control enables the users to expland the node objects and explain how they relate to each other.

20. The WinSock Control enables the users to send data to remote computers using TCP or UDP protocols. 

21. The ADO or ActiveX Data Model is another database object model  like the DAO model which is useful in certain cases

Developing Projects using these Activex Controls will form the subject matter for  a few more lessons to follow.