Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is HTMLXpress?

A: HTMLXpress is ActiveX and can be hosted in any application that supports ActiveX, but is primarily designed for use with Microsoft Internet Explorer for development of sophisticated online editing applications targeting two primary audiences that need our HTMLXpress. First for full-featured text editing and publishing application such as an e-mail editor or online HTML word processor; Second for Web authoring application, for example, a Web page designer, forms editor, or Web publisher. It can successfully create HTML documents completely ready for online publication and/or database insertion. It incorporates direct conversion from Microsoft Excel tables and graphs, plain text and image, complete text and font formatting features. It is especially designed to be built into other web development and management tools.

Q: How to set Internet Security Settings in the client Internet Explorer?

A: Before you start using HTMLXpress ActiveX you must do some initial settings in your Internet Explorer. Microsoft Internet Component Download (MSICD) is a capability of the Internet Explorer. In fact, the browser's security settings must be set correctly or the end user will not get HTMLXpress control. You have to select the appropriate Internet security setting in order the Internet Explorer to be able to download and execute an ActiveX.

• Download signed ActiveX controls. This should be Prompt or Enable
• Download unsigned ActiveX controls. This should be Disable. (If you are trying an unsigned version of our ActiveX, set this to Prompt or Enabled. Or download the signed version from http://www.loanamortizer.com/installfiles/htmlxpressdemo.exe.)
• Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins. This should be Enable or Prompt
• Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting. This should be Enable or Prompt

For more detailed explanation with images (screenshots) check out the Getting Started Guide.

Q: Does it work with Netscape for Internet applications?

A: HTMLXpress is working only under MS Internet Explorer 5.0 and 5.+. It is a simple but powerful scripting model that makes it possible to develop sophisticated online editing applications, create forms that allow users to enter formatted text, or have a page on a Web site that each user can customize with unique content.

Q: What about other platforms (Macintosh, UNIX)?

A: HTMLXpress is currently supported only under MS Internet Explorer 5.0 and 5.+ on Windows platform. For more information about ActiveX and supported platforms, visit Microsoft's site

Q: How does the spell checker works?

A: The HTMLXpress works with the spell checker installed with your Microsoft Word copy on your computer on the language it is set on there.

Q: How to download a demo?

A: You can download a demo from our servers. For more information see Download HTMLXpress

Q: How is the HTMLXpress licensing policy applied - per user, per server or per domain?

A: The licensing of HTMLXpress applies per web server with up to 5 virtual domains, not per user. The cost for the single license - 1 server, 5 domains is $449. The copy of HTMLXpress can be licensed for one web server, 5 servers, 10 or developer's license. The discount for 5 computer license is 10%, 10 licenses - 25% and the developer license costs $6,000. US. There is no limitations how many people can use one (or more) licensed copy installed on one web server within the company or web site.

Q: Can HTMLXpress be used as an HTML editor in VB application?

A: Yes, you can use it as easy as you use all other ActiveX controls with VB. You can manage HTMLXpress programmatically by showing/hiding group of buttons and particular button, implement cascading stylesheets, manage document using DOM (Document Object Model), etc.

Q: What additional content should be installed if HTMLXpress needs to be embedded in applications, written in Visual Basic, Delphi or other platform, which supports ActiveX?

A: The list of DLL's and OCX, needed by HTMLXpress :

• HTMLXpress.OCX (Included in the CAB file)
• objsafe.tlb (Included in the CAB file)
• MSCOMCTL.OCX version 6,0,88,62
• RICHTX32.OCX Version=6,0,88,4
• Msvbvm60.DLL Version=6,0,88,77
• OLEAUT32.DLL Version=2,40,4275,1
• OLEPRO32.DLL Version=5,0,4275,1
• ASYCFILT.DLL Version=2,40,4275,1
• STDOLE2.TLB Version=2,40,4275,1
• COMCAT.DLL Version=4,71,1460,1

The setup program (HTMLXpress.exe) will take care of installation and registration of HTMLXpress.OCX and Objsafe.tlb onto the client's computer. After installation completes, you should open the demo-page that contains the HTMLXpress object. This step verifies that all the above mentioned files are available, and if not, downloads and installs those files. This action requires internet connection.

Q: How to use HTMLXpress in Delphi development environment? I'm getting the error message when I try to call an ActiveX component method.

A: Delphi has a mechanism to work with ActiveX control. But Delphi 5 has problems with the ActiveX controls created using Visual Basic, which is fixed in Delphi 6. The problem is that Delphi fails to cope with the Visual Basic's sparse vtables. We have created a HTMLXpress.TLB file to overcome this issue. This file is included in the installation and should be imported in Delphi instead of the OCX file while creating the declarations in the PAS file that let you use the control as it is a native VCL object. For more information about How to import Type library refer to your Delphi Help Topics.

When you create the declarations in the PAS file you may notice that there are a lot of "ghost methods"... eg., methods which are in the vtable layout but which are not represented by typinfo in the type library. Controls created using Visual Basic such as HTMLXpress have gaps in their vtable, so what appears to be a second method in an interface may not actually be located at the second slot in the vtable. In the output file there are "GhostMethod__MainControl_xx_xx " for each gap in the vtable, allowing the construction of an accurate vtable. The need for ghost methods is determined by checking the offset of a method from the beginning of the interface (in the interface description) against the current offset from the beginning of the vtable.

Q: How to solve the problem with the copy/cut functionality in the Delphi applications with the HTMLXpress ActiveX Control?

A: The problem is that while Delphi makes a HTMLXpress_TLB.PAS file it does not add automatically initialization and finalization sections to that file, and that is the reason why the copy/cut functions do not work while you put the HTMLXpress ActiveX Control in a Delphi form. To fix this problem you need to add at the end of the unit HTMLXpress_TLB.PAS the following:

begin
...
initialization
 OleInitialize(nil);
    
finalization
 OleUninitialize;

end.

Q: Why do I get the error message when trying to integrate the HTMLXpress ActiveX into my application?

A: When you are trying to integrate the HTMLXpress ActiveX into a small place of your application you can get the following error: "Runtime error-'5'Invalid Procedure Call or Argument". If you resize it to make it larger (leave more space for the control) the problem will be solved.
If you need the HTMLXpress ActiveX to have a certain size you can do that using client script that first hides the buttons you are not planning to show and after that resizes the HTMLXpress ActiveX object.
(NOTE: you should not have "style" attribute in the <OBJECT> tag in order to resize the control, must be <OBJECT ID=HTMLXpress NAME=HTMLXpress WIDTH=620 HEIGHT= 445 ....> ).
Here is an example:

function initEditor(){
    // Some initializations go here
    ...
    document.HTMLXpress.HideGroup(gnFileMangment);
    document.HTMLXpress.HideGroup(gnEdit);
    document.HTMLXpress.HideGroup(gnFormat_Style);
    document.HTMLXpress.HideGroup(gnFormat_Font);
    document.HTMLXpress.HideGroup(gnTable);
    document.HTMLXpress.width= 300; 
    document.HTMLXpress.height= 200;
    // Some other initializations go here
    ...
} 

Q: How to solve the problem with "Run-Time Error 5" when I put the HTMLXpress control on a Visual FoxPro application?

A: When you are trying to integrate the HTMLXpress ActiveX into a too small place of your Visual FoxPro application form you can get the following error: "Runtime error-'5'Invalid Procedure Call or Argument".
Many thanks to Charlie Warrell for his effort and problem-solving solution.

This workaround allows you to solve the problem and use the control in Visual FoxPro.

1.  Create a PRG Called HTMLEXPRESS.PRG which contains the following code.
 
   DEFINE CLASS HTMLEditor AS OLEControl
      * Set properties of the OLE Container Control
      Visible = .T.
      Height = 400		'Adjust These To The Size You Need
      Width = 500		'If You Get Too Small - You'll Get Runtime Error 5
   ENDDEFINE

2.  In the INIT of your Form add the following code.
 
    SET PROCEDURE TO HTMLEXPRESS.PRG ADDITIVE
    ThisForm.ADDOBJECT('HTMLXpress', 'HTMLEditor', 'HTMLXpress.MainControl')

Q: How to send the edited HTML content to the server?

A: We treat HTMLXpress as an "extension" of <INPUT TYPE="TEXT"...> or <TEXTAREA> tags of HTML. The INPUT tags are uploaded by the web browser when the form is submitted to the server. However, the HTML content cannot be automatically submitted. Instead, it needs to be copied from HTMLXpress editor to an <INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN"...> element that is later submitted by the form. That helps us to send the value of the <INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN"...> value property with the submitted form to web server. For reference see Step-by-step guide.

Q: How HTMLXpress handles images if you are inserting the HTML into a database?

A: The HTMLXpress control is only a container for images. Image attributes and properties should be handled by the HTMLXPress DOM interface. When the active document in HTMLXpress control is an HTML page you can use DOM property to do anything with the images collection (e.g. all image files, contained in the present document). This property is read-only and it is not available in the demo version. The DOM property returns the document object (IHTMLDocument). You can use the value of this property for access the current document's DHTML document object model. In fact, the control's DOM property has the same role as the DHTML document object. You can use a script to access every element on a page as an object. Then you can manipulate it by calling its methods or setting its properties. The HTMLXpress.DOM.images retrieves the image collection, following the order of image's appearance in document source. You can use the image's SRC property to upload images to the server.

Q: Does HTMLXpress control have the capability to upload images to the server?

A: As explained in previous article, HTMLXpress itself cannot upload images, as the UPLOAD process needs two-sided connection: a web browser and a server. The HTMLXpress is a client-based ActiveX component and it doesn't interact with the web server. This means that if the present document contains images or other files, the user need to manually upload the images to the web server, via http or ftp protocols.