Activate ActiveX Control

You cannot directly interact with Microsoft ActiveX controls loaded with applet, embed, or object elements. You can interact with these controls only after activating the user interface of these controls. This topic describes how Microsoft Internet Explorer Processes ActiveX controls, displays the interface for loading ActiveX controls to activate them, and describes the impact of this behavior on auxiliary tools and applications hosting webbrowser controls. (This article also contains links to English webpages .)

This topic contains the following parts.

Content on this page

	Understand control activation
	Externally loaded interactive controls
	Programmatically determine whether the control is not activated
	Assistance impact
	Influence of webbrowser Control
	Appendix A: DHTML events blocked by inactive controls

For more information about user experience, see Internet Explorer 6: ActiveX update.

For more information about the platform affected by this update, see Internet Explorer ActiveX update.

Understand control activation

Interactive controls are ActiveX controls that provide user interfaces. When a webpage loads an ActiveX control using an applet, embed, or object element, the user interface of the control is blocked until the user activates it. If the page uses the preceding element to load multiple controls, each interactive control must be activated separately.

If a widget is not activated, the following results are displayed.

•	Dynamic HTML (DHTML) events (such as onblur and onclick) related to user interaction are blocked ). Appendix A lists DHTML events that are blocked when the control is not activated.
•	This control does not respond to window messages (such as wm_click and wm_keypress) generated by the keyboard or mouse ).
•	Overwrite the window (the OLE site created for the Control) to prevent the keyboard and mouse messages from reaching the inactive control.

When creating an inactive control, Internet Explorer uses different technologies to prevent messages from reaching the control on the keyboard or mouse window. If the unactivated control has a window control (such as the HTML Help Control), Internet Explorer uses the enablewindow function to disable the window of the unactivated control. When a user activates a control with a window, the function activates the disabled window. If the inactive control is a windowless control (such as an office Web component), the container of the control filters keyboard and mouse messages.

When the control is not activated, it does not respond to user input; however, it does perform interactive unrelated operations. For example, if you open a webpage that uses a Microsoft Windows Media Player to play a music file, the page is loaded to play the music. You cannot interact with the Windows Media Player before activating the user interface of the control, as shown in.

Note:: Unactivated controls do not respond to direct user interaction, but they respond to script commands.

To activate an interactive control, click the control, or use the tab key to set the focus on the control, and then press the Space key or enter key. Interactive controls loaded from external scripts can immediately respond to user interaction without activation.

Some window controls use Windows API functions (such as getkeystate and getcursorpos) to determine the keyboard and mouse states, and then respond to the function results. For these controls only, a prompt is displayed before the control is run in Internet Explorer. To run the control, you must click the button in the message window before loading the page. After the widget is loaded, it does not need to be activated. Currently, the following controls have this behavior, but the supplier is continuing to develop new controls that do not have this behavior.

•	Virtools (TM) Web player of virtools SA
•	Adobe Systems Inc.'s Macromedia Shockwave Player (TM)
•	QuickTime (TM) of Apple Computer, Inc)

When loading from an external script file, these controls do not display a prompt.

The prompt dialog box is displayed.

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Externally loaded interactive controls

To create a webpage that loads an interactive control (responds immediately to user input), use Microsoft JScript to load the control from an external script file. You cannot write script elements inline with the main HTML page to load controls from the outside. If the script is programmed in an inline way (for example, using the writeln function), the loaded control is the same as that loaded by the HTML document itself and needs to be activated. To ensure that the control is interactive when it is loaded, use one of the following methods to load the control from an external file.

The following example uses document. Write to dynamically load controls.

<! -- HTML file --> <HTML> <body leftmargin = 0 topmargin = 0 scroll = NO> <SCRIPT src = "docwrite. JS "> </SCRIPT> </body> 
An external script file can also modify the element's outerhtml attribute to achieve the same effect, as shown in the following example.
<! -- HTML file --> <HTML> <body> <Div id = "embedcontrollocation"> <SCRIPT src = "embedcontrolouterhtml. JS "> </SCRIPT> </div> </body> 
The following example uses document. createelement to load ActiveX controls that use object elements.
Note:: When Using createelement to load an object or EMBED element to a webpage, be careful to create this element, initialize its attributes, and add this element to the DOM of the page, then create the ActiveX control to be loaded by the new element. For more information, see the createelement document.
<! -- HTML file --> <HTML> <body> <Div id = "divid"> <SCRIPT src = "createelementexplicit. JS "> </SCRIPT> </div> </body> 
The following example uses the innerhtml and JScript functions to load ActiveX controls and specify the parameter values.
<! -- HTML file --> <HTML> 
Because the following example uses the writeln function to insert the script into the original HTML document, the generated control needs to be activated. To load a control that does not require activation, use one of the preceding examples.
<! -- HTML file --> <HTML> <body> <Div id = "embedcontrollocation"> <SCRIPT id = "elementid" src = "embedcontrol. JS "> </SCRIPT> </div> </body> 
Note:: To automatically activate ActiveX controls, Internet Explorer must use VBscript. dll and jscript. dll versions after January 1, September 30, 2003. In earlier versions of this DLL, all controls need to be activated, regardless of the mechanism for loading them from webpages. For the current versions of VBScript. dll and jscript. dll libraries, see Download Windows Script.
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Programmatically determine whether the control is not activated
You cannot use JScript functions or server scripts to determine whether a control is activated. Applications hosting web browser controls cannot determine whether the controls are activated.
You can use the dispid_ambient_uidead environment attribute to determine the activation status. This attribute is called through idispatch: invoke. When this attribute is changed through iolecontrol: onambientpropertychange, The iolecontrol interface is notified.
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Assistance impact
When a helper tool encounters ActiveX controls, they can use the iaccessible interface of the object to obtain information about the controls. Inactive controls can be activated using the iaccessible: accdodefaultaction method.
The following table describes the results of calling the iaccessible Method on an inactive control.

    

 
     
 
      
 
       
Method
 
       
Description
 
      
 
     
 
     
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: accdodefaultaction
 
       
Activate the control and publish the ActiveX control or Java Applet in the msaa tree.
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: acchittest
 
       
Returns childid_self.
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: acclocation
 
       
Location of the underlying ActiveX control or Java Applet
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: accnavigate
 
       
Returns e_notimpl.
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: accselect
 
       
Returns e_notimpl.
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: get_accchild
 
       
Returns s_false.
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: get_accchildcount
 
       
Returns 0 and s_ OK.
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: get_accdefaaction action
 
       
Return "select this control"
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: get_accdescription
 
       
Returns e_notimpl.
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: get_accfocus
 
       
Returns e_notimpl.
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: get_acchelp
 
       
Return "this control is inactive. Select the control to activate and use it ."
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: get_acchelptopic
 
       
No change-returns e_notimpl
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: get_acckeyboardshortcut
 
       
Unchanged-delegate this object. If no object exists, this method returns e_notimpl.
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: get_accname
 
       
Return "inactive control"
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: get_accparent
 
       
Unchanged-returns the most recent accessible element in the parent chain.
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: get_accrole
 
       
Returns role_system_pushbutton.
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: get_accselection
 
       
Returns e_notimpl.
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: get_accstate
 
       
Returns the current status of the object. This status always includes state_system_focusable
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: get_accvalue
 
       
Returns e_notimpl.
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: put_accname
 
       
Returns e_notimpl.
 
      
 
      
 
       
Iaccessible: put_accvalue
 
       
Returns e_notimpl.
 
      
 
     

    
For information about activating controls or controls that do not require activation, see active accessibility SDK.
Note:: The auxiliary tool should refresh the default operation after triggering, so that the ActiveX control data and its subitem data can be correctly displayed (if any ).
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Influence of webbrowser Control
By default, custom applications hosting the webbrowser control do not block ActiveX controls loaded by the applet, embed, or object element. Inactive control blocks apply only to the following applications.

    

 
     
 
      
 
       
•
 
       
Windows Explorer
 
      
 
      
 
       
•
 
       
Internet Explorer
 
      
 
      
 
       
•
 
       
MSN Explorer
 
      
 
      
 
       
•
 
       
AOL Explorer
 
      
 
      
 
       
•
 
       
AOL 8.0
 
      
 
      
 
       
•
 
       
AOL 9.0
 
      
 
      
 
       
•
 
       
CompuServe 2000
 
      
 
      
 
       
•
 
       
Aim
 
      
 
      
 
       
•
 
       
Netcaptor
 
      
 
      
 
       
•
 
       
Browse3d
 
      
 
      
 
       
•
 
       
Macromedia Dreamweaver
 
      
 
      
 
       
•
 
       
Macromedia contribute
 
      
 
      
 
       
•
 
       
Netscape 8 (when Internet Explorer is used as a rendering engine)
 
      
 
     

    
To match the behavior of Internet Explorer in the application, add the dochostuiflag_enable_activex_inactivate_mode flag to the dwflags parameter of the dochostuiinfo structure, as shown in the following example.
HRESULT GetHostInfo(DOCHOSTUIINFO *pInfo){...pInfo->cbSize = sizeof(DOCHOSTUIINFO);pInfo->dwFlags = { Other DOCHOSTUIFLAGs } |DOCHOSTUIFLAG_ENABLE_ACTIVEX_INACTIVATE_MODE;...return S_OK;}
You can also enable interactive control blocking by adding the application process name to the following registry key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (or HKEY_CURRENT_USER)SOFTWAREMicrosoft Internet ExplorerMainFeatureControlFEATURE_ENABLE_ACTIVEX_INACTIVATE_MODEprocess_name.exe=(DWORD) 0x00000001
Note:: Because you can modify the registry, the dochostuiinfo flag is the preferred method to enable interactive control blocking.
By default, applications can be registered to be incorporated into ActiveX controls for activation. For more information, contact your technical customer manager or Microsoft's Product Support Department.
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Appendix A: DHTML events blocked by inactive controls
The following table lists DHTML events that are blocked when the ActiveX control is not activated.

    

 
     

 
     
 
      
 
       
Onactivate
 
       
Ondragleave
 
       
Onmouseout
 
      
 
      
 
       
Onbeforeactivate
 
       
Ondragover
 
       
Onmouseover
 
      
 
      
 
       
Onbeforecopy
 
       
Ondragstart
 
       
Onmouseup
 
      
 
      
 
       
Onbeforecut
 
       
Ondrop
 
       
Onmousewheel
 
      
 
      
 
       
Onbeforedeactivate
 
       
Onfocus
 
       
Onmove
 
      
 
      
 
       
Onbeforepaste
 
       
Onfocusin
 
       
Onmoveend
 
      
 
      
 
       
Onblur
 
       
Onfocusout
 
       
Onmovestart
 
      
 
      
 
       
Onclick
 
       
Onhelp
 
       
Onpage
 
      
 
      
 
       
Oncontextmenu
 
       
Onkeydown
 
       
Onpaste
 
      
 
      
 
       
Oncontrolselect
 
       
Onkeypress
 
       
Onresize
 
      
 
      
 
       
Oncopy
 
       
Onkeyup
 
       
Onresizeend
 
      
 
      
 
       
Oncut
 
       
Onlosecapture
 
       
Onresizestart
 
      
 
      
 
       
Ondblclick
 
       
Onmousedown
 
       
Onscroll
 
      
 
      
 
       
Ondeactivate
 
       
Onmouseenter
 
       
Onselectstart
 
      
 
      
 
       
Ondragend
 
       
Onmouseleave
 
       
 
      
 
      
 
       
Ondragenter
 
       
Onmousemove
 
       
 
      
 
     

    
2007 Microsoft Corporation is copyrighted. All rights reserved. Usage rules.
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