Programmatically Registering ActiveX Controls

Articles and Tips: tip

Wolfgang Schreiber
Novell, Inc.

01 May 2002

If you want to deploy Novell ActiveX controls, you need to register the control on the target station. You achieve this by installing the whole set of controls that use the installation routine that comes with the Novell controls. Since this installation includes sample code, documentation and all controls, you may prefer to run a custom installation of selected OCX files.

This can be done in one of two main ways:

Use the REGSRV32 utility from the command line of from within your application with a call like:
```
WinExec(PChar('regsvr32 /s my.ocx'), SW_HIDE);
```
Use the OCX internal registration functions with something like this (Delphi sample):

uses ActiveX;
    
function RegisterControl(sFileName: String): boolean;
    
var
        Hdl             : THandle;
        RegServer : TDllRegisterServer;
begin 
        Hdl             := LoadLibrary(pChar(sFileName));
        RegServer := GetProcAddress (Hdl, 'DllRegisterServer');
        result    := (RegServer=0);
        FreeLibrary (Hdl);
end; 
    
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
        if RegisterControl('C:\Novell\Activex\nwsrva.ocx') then ShowMessage('OK');
end;

* Originally published in Novell AppNotes

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