ActiveX Web Programming is not so much a tutorial as an overview of ActiveX technology within the context of Web development. The discussion, which is aimed at programmers, gives a good conceptual overview of ActiveX along with many concrete examples to help programmers see what it involves to implement a given technology.

The book is divided fairly evenly between server-side and client-side issues. Server topics include an architectural overview of the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) and the Internet Database Connector (IDC) and detailed discussions of ISAPI filters, the ISAPI specification, and CGI and ISAPI programming in both Perl and C++. The client side portion of the book features chapters on the creation of ActiveX controls with the ActiveX Control Framework, an overview of VBScript (with a chapter on ActiveX Server), and in-depth coverage of Java and how it can interact with ActiveX. While each one of these topics could be the subject of an entire book, ActiveX Web Programming is a good choice for anyone who is trying to get a real handle on what ActiveX offers as a client/server Web technology.