The Object Technology Company

ActiveX Programming in MFC
Building ActiveX Applications in C++

Duration: 4 days

Who should attend?
System architects, Programmer analysts and Software engineers wishing to add Object Linking and Embedding (ActiveX) features to Windows applications using Microsoft Foundation Classes.

What will you gain?

• An understanding of the trade-offs involved in using ActiveX and related technologies,
• A solid foundation of the Common Object Model (COM) philosophy and architecture, Familiarity with the MFC abstractions for ActiveX programming,
• A tour of the AppWizard-generated code that enables ActiveX containers and servers.

Course contents and activities:
ActiveX Programming in MFC includes interactive demonstrations to illustrate effective programming techniques for ActiveX, both via COM and via MFC. Intensive lab exercises augment the lectures and demos to give the student a practical understanding of ActiveX programming.

1. Course Overview
   Audience and background. Instructor introduction. What will we cover, course layout and structure.

2. Introduction to COM
   What is the Component Object Model? COM Features. Classes, Objects, and interfaces. GUID, IUnknown, reference counting, QueryInterface(). Implementing COM objects in C. Implementing COM objects in C++.
   Lab: Creating a simple COM DLL.

3. Structured Storage
   Rationale. Storages and IStorage. IStorage member functions. Streams, IStream, LockBytes. Compound Files, Transaction Model. Access modes. Creating and opening a structured storage. Property sets. DocFile Viewer. COleDocument and COleStreamFile.
   Lab: Using structured storage.

4. ActiveX and MFC
   What MFC brings to ActiveX. Advantages and disadvantages of using MFC for ActiveX. What the Wizards provide. CCmdTarget. MFC interface maps. COleObjectFactory.
   Lab: Using MFC to produce simple ActiveX application.

5. ActiveX user interface
   The user model for ActiveX. Linking and embedding. Object states. Inserting an object. Object transfer model. Object conversion.

6. ActiveX containers
   Container model. Container responsibilities. Key container/server interfaces. IOleClientSite, IAdviseSink, IOleObject, IPersistStorage, IViewObject. MFC ActiveX container classes - COleDocument, CLinkingDoc, COleClientItem, CRectTracker. AppWizard support for container. AppWizard generated ActiveX objects. User tasks.
   Lab: Writing an ActiveX container.

7. Data Storage and Transfer
   Need for Uniform Data Transfer. IDataObject. Advise Sinks and StorageMedia. STGMEDIUM. Formats. IDataObject viewer and demo. MFC abstractions. Rendering and delayed rendering.
   Lab: Data transfer.

8. Drag and Drop
   Overview of drag and drop. DoDragDrop(), COleDropTarget, and DROPEFFECT. OnDragOver(), OnDragLeave() and OnDrop(). Implementing a drop source. Object descriptors.
   Lab: Drag and drop.

9. ActiveX Servers
   ActiveX server concepts. Mini servers and full servers. Registration. MFC server classes and server utility classes. Server states. Serialization. COleServerDoc and COleServerItem. COleTemplateServer and COleIPFrameWnd. AppWizard support for server applications.
   Lab: Writing an ActiveX server.

10. ActiveX Automation
    Why automation? Automation terminology. Automation object. Automation server and client. Interfaces - IDispatch. DISPID and VARIANTS. Problems with IDispatch. Type libraries, ODL. ProgID.
    Lab: Automation with IDispatch.

11. ActiveX Automation with MFC
    CCmdTarget support. Dispatch map and dispatch map macros. Creating IDispatch interfaces. ClassWizard support. Automation clients. COleDispatchDriver. InvokeHelper(). Strong vs. weak locks. Object lifetime issues.
    Lab: Automation with MFC.

12. ActiveX Miscellaneous - Tools Controls, Distributed COM, future
    Object Table and Ole2View. CL32TEST and SR32TEST for testing ActiveX applications. ActiveX Controls. Connection points. Distributed ActiveX. Marshalling. ActiveX controls. ActiveX, SOM and OpenDoc. ActiveX future - structured storage changes, compound document changes, ActiveX and ODBC.

13. Review and conclusion

This is a lab-intensive course designed to impart expertise in writing ActiveX applications using COM and MFC. The course combines lectures with interactive demonstrations of all aspects of ActiveX programming and usage.

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