This page last updated May 7, 1999

In this session I used two sample applications to demonstrate the use of the controls listed above and a third sample application to show the Microsoft Agent technology in action.

The purpose of this presentation was twofold. First, I wanted to give the less experienced users a head start on the use of many of the common controls used in Windows applications today. Secondly, and I think more importantly, I wanted to demonstrate the power of component based development and how it allows you to create robust applications very quickly.

The technologies described in the sample applications described below will work with VB 5.0 or VB 6.0 however you will need VB 6.0 to load and run the Explorer and Browser apps. If you are interested in versions of these applications that will run in VB 5.0, please contact me and I will see what I can do for you.

Microsoft Agent
This application was inspired by an article written by Eric Harmon that appeared in the Sept/Oct 1998 edition of Visual Developer. It demonstrates the basic use of the Microsoft Agent technology. As discussed at the presentation, the Agent technology is great for giving "guided" tours or tutorials in your application but is not really suited to be used in the same manner as the Office Assistant. For more information see the Microsoft Agent Home Page.
Download the Microsoft Agent Sample Application (3 K)

Explorer
This sample shows the basic use of the TreeView and ListView by building an Explorer like application. At this point we also discussed some of the "hidden" powers of Internet Explorer and how you can tap into that power through the WebBrowser control. Try the following, open IE (version 3.0 or higher) and type "C:\" in to the address box; notice how IE morphs into a My Computer or Explorer type interface. Now type in the path to a text file (any file with a ".txt" extension); IE morphs into a text file viewer. Now for the really cool part, type in the path to a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet (this part requires that you have Office 95 or Office 97 installed on your machine); IE suddenly morphs into Word or Excel. You should notice that Word or Excel has merged it's Menus and made it's Toolsbars available as well. This power (plus even more when you start exploring ActiveX Document Objects which we touched on briefly at the meeting) is all available to you through the WebBrowser control and is demonstrated in this sample application.
Download the Explorer Sample Application (7 K)

Browser
This application delves more into the use of the WebBrowser control as well as demonstating the basic use of the Statusbar, Toolbar, Microsoft Script Control, and the Internet Transfer Control. I know that sounds like quite alot but each of these controls provide simple straightforward interfaces that allow you to start using their basic functionality without having to spend hours going through documentation and help files. I don't have space here to go over the details of each of the technologies used or recap the discussions we had at the session so I just present the sample application "as is" for your review.
Download the Browser Sample Application (13 K)