JavaBeans Bridge for ActiveX v1.0 - September 97

Warning

The CLASSPATH/PATH requirements have changed dramatically since Beta 3, please read the environment settings for the bridge paragraph.

REPACKAGE ALL your JavaBeans with the new packager version. Do not use old packaged JAR files, they will not be loaded any more by the bridge, they reference classes that are obsoleted or renamed.

Requirements

Operating Systems

The following operating systems are supported on Intel processor

Windows NT 4.0
Windows 95 with Service Pack 1

Java Development Kit

The final version of the JDK 1.1 is the only one currently supported. Find it at the Java Development Kit Home Page. JDK 1.1.4 is recommended.

Installation

Warning : The installation assumes the JDK 1.1 or later is installed OR the bin directory added to the path.
Double click on the setup.exe and follow the instructions.

2. Try it out

One easy test to check your installation is to run the packager from the desktop. Open the windows TaskBar, choose the ActiveX Packager For JavaBeans icon from the program menu.

The following screen should appear :

3. Documentation

Look into your installation directory for a documentation on how to use the ActiveX bridge and a quick example how to run it in Visual Basic. The file is AXInstruct.ps (for PostScript) or .pdf (for Acrobat).

Tested Containers

The following ActiveX containers have been tested :

Visual Basic 4.0 Standard Edition
Visual Basic 5.0 CCE

Microsoft Office 95 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
Microsoft Office 97 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

Lotus SmartSuite

Internet Explorer 3.02, 4.0 (Preview 2 w/o shell integration)
Microsoft ActiveX ControlPad
Microsoft FrontPage 97

Delphi 2.0
MFC 4.2 or 5.0

Design Considerations

Although you don't need to code the JavaBeans differently if you want to use it in the ActiveX bridge, there are some considerations and advices you need to follow:

AWT events (like actionPerformed on a Button) can be forwarded to the ActiveX bridge and hooked up to a script method, but remember that the event has been fired by the AWT thread and therefore should not be blocked for a long time by the scripting method. Otherwise the AWT thread gets confused and you can hang the Java Virtual Machine. For example, if Visual Basic enters debugging mode while receiving an AWT event, you should return to design mode immediately rather than debug in running mode where you have risks to confuse AWT.
If your JavaBean grows, consider providing a BeanInfo to describe your bean. It prevents the ActiveX bridge from forwarding all AWT events and supports all the java.awt.Component methods and properties.
To translate your .gif files, you can paint them as .bmp and configure the Registry file as described in the documentation or use a shareware product to do the translation for you.
The packager will create an instance of the Bean at packaging time, the instantiation of this bean should not fail or generate exception in order to correctly generate the OLE information about this bean.
Please report any bugs to JavaSoft.

Environment variables used by the ActiveX bridge

The ActiveX bridge does not require any environment variable.

The Java Development Kit must have been installed with its correct installation setup OR the JDK must be accessible through the PATH

The Bridge will look into the registry to look at it's installation path to use the correct CLASSPATH. If you move manually the bridge installation directory, please modify the registry key :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Beans\ActiveX Brige\ActiveXHome

        If you package some JavaBeans and want to load the packaged jar file into the BeanBox you will need to add the path to the bridge classes to the CLASSPATH before running the beanbox. You can either modify the makefile that runs the beanbox or set the environment variable CLASSPATH.
        Given you installed the ActiveX bridge in the c:\bdk\bridge, register the following CLASSPATH:
                CLASSPATH =c:\bdk\bridge\classes

        To register the CLASSPATH on Windows 95, edit the autoexec.bat file and add the following statement:
                set CLASSPATH = c:\bdk\bridge\classes

        To register the CLASSPATH on NT, log on as administrator, start the control panel, select the environment tab and add a system variable CLASSPATH with the correct value.