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Creating Cool Web Sites with HTML, XHTML, and CSS
tip
NCompass Labs has a plug-in called Ncompass for Netscape Navigator that enables Navigator to use ActiveX Controls. Find out more at http://www. ncompasslabs.com.
ActiveX functions as a wrapper called an ActiveX control. The code being included interacts with the wrapper (ActiveX), and the wrapper interacts with the browser directly. Using this technique, just about any code can run within the browser space, from word processors and spreadsheets to simple games and animation. Each ActiveX control has a unique class ID and is included as an object tag, with parame ters specified in the param tag—remarkably similar to JavaScript. Here’s an example of how you might include an ActiveX control in your page: <object id=”ClientLayout”
classid=”clsid:812ae312-8b8e-11cf-93c8-00aa00c08fdf”>
<param name=”ALXPATH” ref_value=”Client.alx”>
</object>
note
To learn more about ActiveX, visit Microsoft’s Developer Network site at http:// msdn.microsoft.com/. There’s also a good ActiveX tutorial area, along with much more, at http://www.webreference.com/.
XSLT Although it has a confusing acronym, XSLT, the Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations, offers a very interesting approach to modifying XML-based pages within the Web browser. XSLT is an XML-based language, which means that it looks a lot like the document specification values you see in Chapter 16. Take a quick look at this XSLT style sheet: <?xml version=’1.0’?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl=”http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform”
version=”1.0”>
<xsl:template match=”/”>
<html>
<body bgcolor=”#ccccff”>
<h2> <xsl:value-of select=”Concert/Title” /></h2>
<b>Performances:</b><ul>
<xsl:for-each select=”Concert/CourseDates/Date[Day!=’’]” > <li><xsl:value-of select=”Month”/>/ <xsl:value-of select=”Day”/>/ <xsl:value-of select=”Year”/> at <xsl:value-of select=”Time/Start”/> <xsl:value-of select=”Mode” /></li> </xsl:for-each>