COM/ActiveX Technology in Qt and MFC

Make an activeX in Qt

• Make a widget (draw/paint in GDI+)

  class AnalogClock : public QWidget

  How to draw an analog clock?
• Generate uuid for classID, interfaceID and eventsID.

  uuidgen >> uuid.txt // ms vs common tools e4ff4700-d874-474b-9f88-c5bb263bb1f7 e6157a63-1a73-4bbc-b8f6-85c9c8bab4aa efa38bb5-dcda-42fe-98a6-7767da42845a

• Make an activeX control

  class ActiveQtFactory : public QAxFactory

Using the control in MS Office/IE

1. Right click on menu bar and choose "Customize Quick Access Toolbar..."
2. Select first tag "Popular"
3. Turn on "Show Developer tab in the Ribbon" (see snapshot)
4. More controls (see snapshot)
5. Insert a control into PowerPoint (see snapshot); Press F5 for slideshow to see clock tick

Reuse activeX control in MFC developed in Qt

1. New | MFC AppWizard (exe) | Project Name (QtAx) | Dialog based | Finish (VS6.0 QtAx.zip) || File | New | Project | Visual C++ Projects | MFC |MFC Application | QtAxVs03 | Application Type (Dialog based) | Finish | View | Resource View | Double Click on IDD_QTAXVS03_DIALOG (QtAxVs03.zip)
2. Right Click on Resource Dialog | Insert ActiveX Control... | AnalogClockAx Class
3. Compile and run

   Runtime needs QtGui4.dll, QtCore4.dll, QtXml4.dll, qwt5.dll ...

How to customize an activeX control in MFC environment

1. Generate a wrapper

   Hit "Add Variable" will trigger a dialog which will generate a wrapper automatically. Then, in QtAxDlg.h you will find

   #include "analogclockax.h" CAnalogClockAx m_clock;

   and the wrapper exposes all set and get functions

   class CAnalogClockAx : public CWnd { // Attributes public: long GetLeft(); void SetLeft(long); }

2. Initialization

   Find OnInitDialog:

   BOOL CQtAxDlg::OnInitDialog() { // TODO: Add extra initialization here m_clock.SetLeft(500); // Customize }

3. ListTreeTab example

   QListWidge and QTreeWidget in QTabWidget as Qt's ListTreeAx control in MFC dialog.
   (Project zip in VC++6.0 | VS2003 ) Synchronize the list view and the tree view in Qt.

   connect(listWidget, SIGNAL(currentItemChanged(QListWidgetItem *, QListWidgetItem *)), this, SLOT(currentListItem(QListWidgetItem *, QListWidgetItem *))); connect(treeWidget, SIGNAL(currentItemChanged(QTreeWidgetItem *, QTreeWidgetItem *)), this, SLOT(currentTreeItem(QTreeWidgetItem *, QTreeWidgetItem *)));

   Use of hash

   void ListTreeTab::currentListItem( QListWidgetItem *current, QListWidgetItem *previous) { treeWidget->setCurrentItem(treeToList.key(current)); } void ListTreeTab::currentTreeItem( QTreeWidgetItem *current, QTreeWidgetItem *previous) { listWidget->setCurrentItem(treeToList.value(current)); }

4. Bilateral talks between Qt controls and MFC controls

   QWidget's signals are partially exposed, which you can in "Add Windows Message Handler..."
   

   void CListWidgetDlg::OncurrentRowChangedListwidgetax1(long p_currentRow) { m_currentText = m_list.GetItemText(); this->UpdateData(FALSE); // TODIALOG } void CListWidgetDlg::OnChangeEditCurrent() { this->UpdateData(TRUE); // TOMEMBER m_list.SetItemText(m_currentText); }

   Demo: Bilateral talks between Qt controls and MFC controls

   
   (Project zip in VC++6.0)

   Qt: My current item changed. MFC: Yes I know. I'm displaying your change. MFC: Look, I am in editing mode (delete, then, keyboard in). Qt: Yes I know. I'm displaying your change. Qt: List itself is editable (double-click, or press F2) listItem->setFlags(listItem->flags() | Qt::ItemIsEditable);

ActiveX scripting: use of OLE interfaces in a scripting engines

Reuse activeX control in Qt developed in MFC