Steps to develop activex with .cab file using visual studio C#.

1. Steps how to create activeX using Visual Studio 2008 (Details Steps)
Written by: Yudep Apoi
INFORMATION: This information is derived from: Creating an ActiveX control in .Net
using C# by Olav Aukan
1. Open your Visual Studio 2008.
FILE > New Project
Select Visual C# > Class Library
Name your project as AxControls
2. Rename your Class1.cs to HelloWorld.cs
Right Click on project AxControls to add reference System.Windows.Form

2. 3. Create a new interface that exposes the controls methods and properties to
COM interop.
Right click the project in Visual Studio and click Add –> New Item
Select ‘Interface’ from the list of components, named it as ‘IHelloWorld.cs’ and
click add.

3. Replace the code with this:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace AxControls
{
[ComVisible(true)]
[InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsDual)]
[Guid("E66C39CB-BB8B-4738-AA0E-5E0D1F2DB230")]
public interface IHelloWorld
{
string GetText();
}
}
[ComVisible(true)] makes the interface visible to COM.
[Guid("E66C39CB-BB8B-4738-AA0E-5E0D1F2DB230")] lets us manually assign a
GUID to the interface. Use guidgen.exe to generate your own.
4. Mark the control as safe for scripting and initialization. By default IE will not
allow initializing and scripting an ActiveX control unless it is marked as safe. This
means that we won’t be able to create instances of our ActiveX class with
JavaScript by default. We can get around this by modifying the browser security
settings, but a more elegant way would be to mark the control as safe. Before
you do this to a “real” control, be sure to understand the consequences. We will
mark the control as safe by implementing the IObjectSafety interface.
Right click the project in Visual Studio and click Add -> New Item.
Select ‘Interface’ from the list of components, name it ‘IObjectSafety.cs’ and click
Add.

4. Put these lines of codes inside IObjectSafety.cs:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace AxControls
{
[ComImport()]
[Guid("51105418-2E5C-4667-BFD6-50C71C5FD15C")]
[InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown)]
interface IObjectSafety
{
[PreserveSig()]
int GetInterfaceSafetyOptions(ref Guid riid, out int pdwSupportedOptions, out
int pdwEnabledOptions);
[PreserveSig()]
int SetInterfaceSafetyOptions(ref Guid riid, int dwOptionSetMask, int
dwEnabledOptions);
}
}
5. Go to HelloWorld make the HelloWorld class implement the IObjectSafety
interface by replacing HelloWorld.cs with these lines of code:

5. using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace AxControls
{
[ComVisible(true)]
[ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.None)]
[Guid("D100C392-030A-411C-92B6-4DBE9AC7AA5A")]
[ProgId("AxControls.HelloWorld")]
[ComDefaultInterface(typeof(IHelloWorld))]
public class HelloWorld : UserControl, IHelloWorld, IObjectSafety
{
#region IHelloWorld Members
public string GetText()
{
return "Hello ActiveX World!";
}
#endregion
#region IObjectSafety Members
public enum ObjectSafetyOptions
{
INTERFACESAFE_FOR_UNTRUSTED_CALLER = 0x00000001,
INTERFACESAFE_FOR_UNTRUSTED_DATA = 0x00000002,
INTERFACE_USES_DISPEX = 0x00000004,
INTERFACE_USES_SECURITY_MANAGER = 0x00000008
};
public int GetInterfaceSafetyOptions(ref Guid riid, out int pdwSupportedOptions,
out int pdwEnabledOptions)
{
ObjectSafetyOptions m_options =
ObjectSafetyOptions.INTERFACESAFE_FOR_UNTRUSTED_CALLER |
ObjectSafetyOptions.INTERFACESAFE_FOR_UNTRUSTED_DATA;
pdwSupportedOptions = (int)m_options;
pdwEnabledOptions = (int)m_options;
return 0;
}
public int SetInterfaceSafetyOptions(ref Guid riid, int dwOptionSetMask, int
dwEnabledOptions)
{
return 0;
}
#endregion
}
}
6. Create a .msi installer for the control. Before an ActiveX control can be used it
must be installed and registered on the client. This can be done in a number of

6. ways, from manually editing the registry to using regasm.exe, but we’re going to
create a Vistual Studio setup project to handle the installation for us.
Right click the Visual Studio solution, select Add -> New Project and select Setup
Project under Other Project Types.
Call the project ‘AxControlsInstaller’ and click OK.
But before that you need to save the project. I named the folder as AxControl1.
Then click save.
After saved this interface will appear.
Right click the ‘AxControlsInstaller’ project, select Add -> Project Output, select
‘Primary output’ from the ‘AxControls’.

7. Right click 'Primary output from AxControls (Active)' and select Properties.
Change the Register property from 'vsdrpDoNotRegister' to 'vsdrpCOM'.
Right click the 'AxControlsInstaller' project and select Build.
The installer should now be located in the AxControlsInstaller's output folder
(binDebug or binRelease). In the corporate domain this .msi file can de run
manually on the client, or automatically with a Group Policy.
7. Package the installer in a .cab file for web deployment. For public web sites we
obviously can't deploy our ActiveX control to the client with a Group Policy. In this
case we're going to have to use Internet Explores built-in ability to download and
install controls that are packaged in .cab files.
1. Download the Microsoft Cabinet Software Development Kit.
2. Unpack the kit to a local folder and copy Cabarc.exe to the 'AxControlsInstaller'
folder.
3. Create a new file named 'AxControls.inf' in the 'AxControlsInstaller' folder and
add the following content:
[version]
signature="$CHICAGO$"
AdvancedINF=2.0

8. [Add.Code]
AxControlsInstaller.msi=AxControlsInstaller.msi
[AxControlsInstaller.msi]
file-win32-x86=thiscab
clsid={1FC0D50A-4803-4f97-94FB-2F41717F558D}
FileVersion=1,0,0,0
[Setup Hooks]
RunSetup=RunSetup
[RunSetup]
run="""msiexec.exe""" /i
"""%EXTRACT_DIR%AxControlsInstaller.msi""" /qn
8. Click the AxControlsInstaller project and then click the Properties window (View ->
Properties Window if it's not visible).
Click the '...' button next to the PostBuildEvent property and add the following
content:
"$(ProjectDir)CABARC.EXE" N "$(ProjectDir)AxControls.cab"
"$(ProjectDir)AxControls.inf" "$(ProjectDir)$(Configuration)AxControlsInstaller.msi"
9. Right click the 'AxControlsInstaller' project and select Build.There should now be a
'AxControls.cab' file in the 'AxControlsInstaller' folder.Take Note: Make sure you use
ANSI encoding for the 'AxControls.inf' file or you will be unable to install the control.
10. Initialize and test the control with JavaScript.
1. Right click the AxControls solution, select Add -> New Project and select 'ASP.Net
Web Application' under 'Web'.
2. Call the project 'WebAppTest' and click OK.
3. Right click the 'WebAppTest' project, select Add -> New Item and select 'HTML
Page'.
4. Call it 'index.html' and click OK.
5. Add the following content to index.html:
<html>
<head>
<object name="axHello" style='display:none' id='axHello'
classid='CLSID:1FC0D50A-4803-4f97-94FB-2F41717F558D'
codebase='AxControls.cab#version=1,0,0,0'></object>
<script language="javascript">
<!-- Load the ActiveX object -->
var x = new ActiveXObject("AxControls.HelloWorld");
<!-- Display the String in a messagebox -->
alert(x.GetText());
</script>

9. </head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Note that 'classid' matches the GUID of the HelloWorld control.
11. Right click 'index.html' and select 'Set as start page'.
12. Right click the 'WebAppTest' project and select 'Set as startup project'.
13. Copy 'AxControls.cab' from the 'AxControlsInstaller' folder to the same folder as
index.html.
14. Uninstall the control from the client by going to Control Panel -> Programs and
Features, selecting 'AxControlsInstaller' on the list and clicking Uninstall. This forces
Internet Explorer to download and install the .cab file and is an important step in
case you've already installed the control.
15. Run the application (F5). This will open 'index.html' in Internet Explorer.
16. Internet Explorer will display a security warning, asking if you want to install
'AxControls.cab'. Click Install.
17. When the page loads it should display a message box with the string you defined in
HelloWorld's GetText() method.
18. If the message box displayed without any more warnings or errors we've
implemented everyting correctly.