What is ActiveX?

ActiveX Controls
Food Processor Analogy

What is an ActiveX Control?
An ActiveX control in Windows 95/98/98 is like a grating wheel is for a food processor. The good old food processors provided a motor, a connection point to the motor, a collection bucket and a input feeding device -Then the user had to select the best slicing, dicing, pureeing attachment in order to process the food correctly.

In this analogy, Windows 95/98/NT provides the motor (the operating system itself), the connection point (support for ActiveX Controls), a collection bucket (the different applications that can utilize ActiveX components), and an input feeding device (access to computer I/O such as serial ports and the Internet). So, now we plug in our favorite cutting edge attachment (the ActiveX control). This ActiveX Control defines what type of inputs to process (you may want data from a device) and what to do with the input - such as display the data or store the data.

From a technical/functional view, ActiveX controls are simply another Windows program with the ability to receive and process inputs, to generate outputs and display information, to be loaded when needed and expelled when its task is complete, to generally perform a useful operation upon request. The only marked difference is that the operating system doesn't directly execute an ActiveX Control for measuring temperature, but the operating system does call a Windows 95/98 executable more or less directly (i.e., when user sees MS Word icon and selects that icon in order to start doing some Word Processing). In the hierarchy of the computer, the Operating System is host to the Executable Application, and the Executable Application is host to the ActiveX Control.

If a manufacturer is providing configuration software for a device, that software can be created as an Executable Application to be started from a Windows Icon or the software can be created as an ActiveX Control to be accessed as part of a web page on the user's computer. The difference here is trivial.

The real power comes by automatically feeding readings from one ActiveX Control (which is obtaining temperature measurements), with another ActiveX Control that is monitoring power inputs to a system, and then obtaining historical trending to help a Plant Manager determine when heating efficiency is optimal or discover when maintenance is required.

More Power To The Industry.
Currently the Process Control industry focuses on providing Object Linking and Embedding for Process Control (OPC) software. Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) is the predecessor to ActiveX and both use the same technology. Essentially, within the scope of this discussion, OLE and ActiveX are practically the same.

(The OPC driver is an ActiveX that specializes in retrieving reading data and alarm status from process control and monitoring devices. Under OPC, data acquisition software locates devices based on an industry standard identification method, namely that of associating devices with groups, items and tags.)

OPC makes for easiest connection of drivers into major Process Control industry applications. OPC was developed for the Industry and hence has the simplest integration into Industry-related products. But the task of utilizing OPC servers/drivers (i.e. Software to extract data from Process Control devices and share the data in OPC format to programs that requested or ordered the data - the clients) with non-OPC products isn't easy or trivial.

ActiveX technology offers a means of retrieving data from Process Control devices which is compatible with many Process Control applications as well as with standard Windows applications. For Process Control and Data Acquisition programs, ActiveX isn't as conventional (as OPC), yet depending on the application use of ActiveX controls can still be trivial. If instead, you seek to access devices from within Visual Basic (version 5 or newer) or via Excel (Excel 97 or newer), or Internet Explorer (ver 4.0 or newer), data access can be as simple as merely inserting the ActiveX Control into the application and watching the ActiveX display the readings - that's how easy an ActiveX obtain results.

Simplicity may be found even for more complex applications. ActiveX controls may obtain data from devices through a programming feature that has an easily identifiable name such as MainReading.

Final Thoughts (or Food for Thought)
Development of the iSeries ActiveX focused on using the cutting edge technology under Microsoft Windows so that users and programmers at all levels of experience would be able to access data from Newport devices. By providing an ActiveX control, we give customers a specialized attachment to the Microsoft food processor. Then, when a customer wants to get temperature or process values from the iSeries devices, he simply inserts the iSeries ActiveX ( or attachment) into the collection bucket and hits the Start button.

Hence we want to extend the power of tools that people currently have. If they have Windows (with the Internet Explorer), they can display iSeries readings in a Web page (and could log readings if so inclined). If they are familiar with Excel, then they combine the power of the iSeries ActiveX with the data manipulation power of Excel. Or if they want, they can insert our ActiveX into Rockwell Automation projects. The Windows user doesn't have to buy other software, but may get other software if desired.

As seen from the similarity to food processors, the strength of the iSeries ActiveX lies in the offering of power, flexibility, economy, and simplicity to the end-user.

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