Test Container

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The Test Container application, shipped with Visual C++, is an ActiveX control container for testing and debugging ActiveX controls. Test Container allows the control developer to test the control’s functionality by changing its properties, invoking its methods, and firing its events. Test Container can display logs of data-binding notifications and also provides facilities for testing an ActiveX control’s persistence functionality: you can save properties to a stream or to substorage, reload them, and examine the stored stream data. This section describes how to use the basic features of Test Container. For additional information, select the Help menu while running Test Container.

To test your ActiveX control

  1. On the Tools menu of Visual C++, click ActiveX Control Test Container.

  2. On the Edit menu of Test Container, click Insert New Control.

  3. In the Insert Control box, select the desired control and click OK. The control will appear in the control container.

Note   If your control is not listed in the Insert Control dialog box, make sure you have registered it with the Register Controls command from the File menu of Test Container.

At this point you can test your control’s properties or events.

To test your ActiveX control with the debugger

  1. Build a debug version of the control with symbolic debugging information.

  2. From the Build menu, select Settings.

    The Project Settings dialog box appears.

  3. Select the Debug tab.

  4. In the Executable for Debug Session box, type TstCon32.exe—the filename for Test Container.

Choose OK.

After you complete this procedure, Test Container starts automatically when you begin debugging your control (by selecting Go from the Debug submenu of Build or pressing F5). If a message box appears stating that no debug information is available for the Test Container, ignore the message and choose OK. You can now step through your code, set breakpoints, and use other debugging features.

To test properties

  1. On the Control menu, click Invoke Methods.

  2. In the Method Name drop-down list, select the PropPut method for the property you want to test.

  3. Modify the Parameter Value or Parameter Type and click on the Set Value button.

  4. Click Invoke to apply the new value to the object.

    The property now contains the new value.

To test events

You can specify the destination of event information.

  1. On the Options menu, click Logging.

  2. Specify the destination of event information.

See Also   ActiveX controls