HTML Components

In this column we embark on a new subject, HTML Components. HTML Components is one of the major additions in Internet Explorer 5.5 and it is quite revolutionary. Microsoft aims to replace the use of ActiveX Controls with HTML Components. Like ActiveX Controls, HTML Components are self-sustained encapsulated objects that can be developed once and distributed to everyone. There are many benefits to using HTML Components. We'll show you some of them.

The subject of HTML Components is not trivial and includes a lot of new terminology, concepts, objects, methods, and properties. We'll introduce this material through a calendar application. This calendar displays the days and weeks of the current month (exactly as you would expect to find in any poster calendar) and highlights the current day. You can also enter your daily appointments for this month. This version does not support persistency yet, so you lose your appointments once you exit the browser.

In this column you will learn:

How to extend HTML behaviors to HTC behaviors
How to create custom tags and namespaces
How to write the application's top-level page
How to write the calendar HTC
How to program the calendar - Part I
How to program the calendar - Part II
How to write the day's HTCs

We also provide you with the listings of the calendar's main page, the three HTCs (MYCAL, ANYDAY, and TODAY), and the non-HTC version of the calendar. All these files are also included in a zipped format.