Apple and Microsoft: Change to Active Content

[Dwayne Bradley]

If you are embedding the QuickTime ActiveX control on web pages, you need to read this email.  Microsoft is once again changing how all developers have to code their web pages to display active content in the Windows version of their IE browser.

<rant>
If you read through the documents from Microsoft, you will soon realize that they are just making it more difficult for web developers to include active content (QuickTime, Flash, etc.); they are doing nothing (and I mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING) to make IE more secure. Go figure!
</rant>

Thanks to Harald Walker from the PanoTools email list for the following announcement from Apple and Microsoft.


Apple and Microsoft both have published information about the upcoming
Internet Explorer changes, concerning ActiveX controls and Patent Nr.
5,838,906:

------
Apple:

Creating the Best User Experience for Active Web Content
http://developer.apple.com/internet/ieembedfix.html

The information, tools, and resources on this page are designed to
provide Macintosh web developers and authors of QuickTime content (Mac
or Windows) the guidance needed to deliver the intended web experience
for users of active content viewed with Microsoft's changed version of
Internet Explorer for Windows. In early 2004, Microsoft will make
changes available that will provide a modified experience for users
viewing "active" content on web pages. The changed browser will prompt
the user before displaying active content that has been coded using
<object>, <embed>, or <applet> tags in an HTML file.

Web developers and authors can update their sites to be ready for the
changed Internet Explorer to continue providing users with the seamless
experience they are accustomed to. To do that, you can apply one of a
few updates to your site.
(...)

---
Microsoft:

Information for Developers about Changes to Internet Explorer
http://msdn.microsoft.com/ieupdate/

This section describes changes to Internet Explorer's handling of
ActiveX controls and Java applets. Developers who build ActiveX
controls, Web developers who use ActiveX and Java Applets on their Web
sites, and developers who host the Web Browser OC or MSHTML should
consult this documentation to understand how the user experience is
changing, and also how to modify their pages to manage the user
experience for their content.

>From this site, there are links to Microsoft documentation explaining
these changes, a test version of Internet Explorer that shows how it
will work when new versions of Windows are released that have this
behavior, as well as links to information provided by other companies
who produce ActiveX controls or tools.

Microsoft expects that new computers and retail purchases of Microsoft
Windows XP will have this behavior sometime early next calendar year.
Microsoft also expects that new service packs of Windows XP and Internet
Explorer will have this behavior starting sometime after that.
(...)

* For Web Developers
Changes to the Default Handling of ActiveX Controls by Internet Explorer
http://msdn.microsoft.com/ieupdate/activexchanges.asp
This topic describes the changes to the behavior of Internet Explorer
when loading ActiveX controls and how Web developers can manage the user
experience for their Web pages.