Please Note! This tutorial deals with VBScript and Active X discussions. In order to use or see the script perform, you need to be running Microsoft Explorer.
…use these to jump around or read it all
[VBScript, Joe?][What Is It?][Active X vs. Java]
[What is Happening?][The First Object]
[The Second Object][Adding It To Your Page]
[When Do I Use VBScript?]
Might you have the time?
VBScript, Joe?
Yup. See that thing right above
–
that purple thing telling you the time? That
’
s a VBScript. If you don
’
t see it, my guess is that you
’
re using Netscape sans plug-in. In order to join in the fun, you need Explorer or a version of Netscape that has an Active X plug-in.
To get the Active X plug-in for Netscape, go to
.
What Is It?
“VBScript” is a nice short way of stating Microsoft’s Visual Basic Scripting. It is a strict sub-set (little portion) of the Visual Basics for Applications (VBA) language. (huh?) It’s the Microsoft version of Java (sort of). (oh) And it’s the leading scripting language used in Active X.
Active X vs. Java
Around 1995 0r 96
–
someone said,
“
Let there be motion on WWW Pages!!!
”
Someone else seconded the motion and everyone went off looking for a simple programming language to do it. The first one that really took was Java. It
’
s an object oriented programming language created by a guy named James Gosling at
. Read more about Java in my tutorial
The Difference between Java and Java Script
. This was a nice programming that allowed for some pretty interesting movement. It also ran other little programs like counters or image maps.
Where Active X comes in is through Bill Gates and the fine people at Microsoft. Active X is Microsoft’s vision for interactive and movement-filled web pages. I’ve used it a couple of times. It’s actually pretty easy to use. One of the problems with Java is that you still need to write it out. Active X attempts to get rid of that. You can call up some activity (an “object”) with the click of a button. It’s all pretty slick. One drawback though.
It only works on Microsoft Explorer, or Netscape with plug-in.
And probably only will for a few generations.
Why? Because there is no real need to have it work everywhere, Java is supported by Explorer and Netscape. What Microsoft is pushing is ease – not something new and better.
Let’s take a look at the script:
What Is Happening
First look at the text above. The actual
“
script
”
is quite small. It
’
s only three lines long. What follows is two
OBJECTS. See that above? The command
<
OBJECT
>
starts off each one.
To understand why, let
’
s go back to 1991. That
’
s when Microsoft began playing with this format they called OLE,
Object Linking and Embedding
. It was a way to create documents (spread-sheets mostly) that would allow many different working parts to all be stuck within the same domain. The parts would all do different things, and they would all work together. A good idea. Each part was referred to as an OBJECT. Each independent and each fully functioning.
The First Object
Looks like this:
