Uniface User Forum

Hi all,

up to now, OCXs have made it possible to integrate in a Uniface application quite easily and in a 'transparent' way some functions already available and developed with tools such as Visual Basic.
The technology behind OCX is now gradually being replaced by other solutions for known security problems.
Looking ahead, maintaining the same characteristics of relatively easy and transparent integration, what are the best ways to go to obtain the results that the ActiveX controls allowed?

Many thanks

Ciao Luigi,

I suppose you are currently using one or more OCX embedded into your Uniface application(s).

Could you give us some example to understand which functionality are you requesting?

Regards,
Gianni

Ciao Gianni,

as you rightly assume, my perplexities arise from the implementation of a functionality that relies on an OCX.
This is the creation of a form that allows you to have the main editing features of Wordpad including the integration of images.
This way you can overcome the limitation of the RichEditBox widget which unfortunately only supports text.
The development in question leans heavily on the well known RichTx32.ocx which has been available for several years.
Having almost reached the end of the implementation, I necessarily wondered how long it will be able to overcome the difficulties that could arise from the evolution of the Windows operating system.
That ActiveX control was updated way back in 2009 so maybe it's already a miracle that it still works without too many problems.
OCXs have no future and therefore it will be necessary to use other integration systems, perhaps not as simple, of the most interesting functionalities available in the form of other types of components.
Of course such difficulties do not exist within the large .NET family but we (Uniface) must try to make them understand us without too much effort, if possible.
From a technical point of view, somehow we could get almost the same integration results as the OCX, perhaps resorting to development in Java or Java-like.
But I must say that I would prefer less 'contaminated' solutions.

Regards

Luigi

Ciao Luigi,

IMHO front-end is more or less moving in the direction of (X)HTML. (X)HTML forms could become the generic front-end for all kind of applications in the next future.

Based on this opinion I think all OCX having a front-end, like the one you are using in your integration, will be substituted from equivalent pieces of software integrated into an (X)HTML page; if you Google today "RTF editors" you can already find many of them (See here and here and here).

Hope this helps you.

Regards,
Gianni

Ciao Gianni,

on those references that you attach I have documented myself in recent days.
Some of the solutions are certainly interesting even if only a small part of them would allow an integration in the terms that I exposed in my previous emails.
My perplexities lie in the fact that those applications unfortunately often do not guarantee a very long 'life expectancy'.
In fact, many suffer from updates long gone in time.
For better or for worse, Microsoft and IT companies with good technical-commercial dimensions have ensured a certain reliability and continuity to their products over time.

Regards,

Luigi