Overview

JADE enables you to interface to two types of external components in a similar way.

External ActiveX control and automation servers
NET components and controls

ActiveX automation enables you to control a Component Object Model (COM) application from within JADE. In JADE, the ActiveXControl subclass of the Control class supports the use of all interfaces on the control whereas the Ocx control that was available in JADE release 5.0 and earlier (which is retained for backward compatibility) provides a limited interface to ActiveX.

A set of interface classes (which are subclasses of the IDispatch class) is generated, and these classes map to each of the interfaces defined for an ActiveX object. You then access the functionality of the ActiveX objects through these interface classes, using the methods and properties that have been generated during the ActiveX import process.

In JADE thin client mode, ActiveX control and automation objects and .NET controls run only on the presentation client.

A selective extract of an ActiveX object extracts only class, method, and property descriptions of the selected ActiveX classes, and not the invisible user data that goes with these classes. To extract all ActiveX data so it is usable in another schema that has not had the ActiveX objects loaded or imported, perform a full schema extract or extract the specific ActiveX object (from the Components menu).