Question

Do you know any tutorial for creating MFC ActiveX objects that can be used in JScript or VBScript (Windows Script Based Host)?

I mean an OCX that can be used as:

var x= new ActiveXObject("name");

and NOT this:

<object id="xxx" classid="CLSID:xxxx">

so far everything that I found just allow using an activex with html tags and they fail to initialize with script engine.

Answer 1

As far as getting started goes, I highly recommend you check out A Beginner Tutorial for Writing Simple COM/ATL DLL and Using it with .NET by ThatsAlok.

I’ve tried a number of different techniques in creating ActiveX objects, and, I found the ATL C++ to be one of my favourites. The key essentials of the tutorial are:

• Utilizing Visual Studio ATL Simple Object wizard
• Naming the interface in C++ (e.g. ISimpleCom)
• Choosing a progid (e.g. SimpleATLcom.SimpleCom)
• Letting Visual Studio generate as much code for you as possible
• Registering your COM DLL

Some things the tutorial doesn’t cover is:

• Avoid Project Build Error PRJ0050 by registering your COM DLL using Per-user redirection which Visual Studio 2008 supports (see Microsoft MSDN article on Linker Property Pages)
• Invoking in JScript / VBScript from Windows Script Host / HTML

The latter, you already know how to do that, but, for completeness. In JScript, it’s:

var obj = new ActiveXObject("SimpleATLcom.SimpleCom");

And, in VBScript, it’s:

Dim obj
Set obj = CreateObject("SimpleATLcom.SimpleCom")