Data Binding Interfaces
This section describes the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0/MSHTML ability to bind data to an HTML page using a Component Object Model (COM) object or a Java applet. This section contains information on how to use these methods to do data binding.
Overviews/Tutorials
About Data Binding Architecture
Data binding is based on a component architecture that consists of four major pieces—the data source object (DSO), data consumers, the binding agent, and the table repetition agent. Data source objects provide the data to a page, data-consuming HTML elements display the data, and the agents ensure that both the provider and the consumer are synchronized.
About Microsoft Tabular Data Control
The Tabular Data Control (TDC) is a Microsoft ActiveX control that can be hosted by Internet Explorer 4.0 and later to display data stored in a delimited text file. Using the TDC, a Web author can display data either within tables or within controls found in a form.
Adding a Data Source Object to a Page
When a Web author has identified the data that she wants to display on a page, the next step is to choose the DSO that will supply the data, and to add a reference to the DSO to that page. Windows Internet Explorer ships with a number of data source objects.
Authoring Data Binding for Other Browsers
This article guides Web authors through the process of developing pages that support data binding while still maintaining compatibility with down-level browsers.
To display the data provided by a DSO, the author binds elements on an HTML page to the DSO. Using the About Data Binding Architecture or the corresponding data binding properties makes it easy. This topic shows how to bind an element to data, lists the elements that support data binding, and describes the capabilities of those elements. Capabilities include support for updating the data to which an element is bound and the data format in which the data is displayed (either HTML or plain text).
This document specifies a new method for data-providing COM objects to advertise that they are data providers. Additionally, it specifies a notification mechanism that can be used by data consumers to receive notifications when the underlying data set supplied by the object changes.
DHTML Event Model Support for Data Binding
The DHTML Object Model exposes an extensive set of scriptable events that Web authors can use to customize the behavior of objects on an HTML page. The data binding architecture leverages this model by exposing an additional set of events that are of interest to authors creating data-driven pages.
DHTML Object Model Support for Data Binding
In Internet Explorer, elements are exposed to scripts as objects. The attributes supported by those elements are exposed as properties. Just as a user can perform actions on most elements clicking a button, for example scripts can call methods of the corresponding object. Scripts can also customize the behavior of elements by handling the events exposed by the corresponding object.
Internet Explorer 4.0 and later enables content providers to develop data-centric Web applications that support retrieval and update through native data binding facilities. The use of HTML extensions and pluggable DSOs makes data-driven pages easy to author, with minimal scripting required.
Java Applets as Data Providers
To date, MSHTML, which was introduced in Internet Explorer 4.0, has supported ActiveX Controls as data providers when they are present on an HTML page, and also when the control supports either the OLE-DB Simple Provider interface or is an instance of the Advanced Data Connector (ADC), which provides OLE-DB interfaces. Note that ADC is the only OLE-DB interface supported in release 1.0 of Internet Explorer 4.0/MSHTML.
OLE-DB Simple Provider for Java: A Data Binding API for MSHTML
MSHTML, introduced in Internet Explorer 4.0, supports a very simple, easily implemented API for exposing data to HTML pages. The API supports access to string and variant data types and is built using array-like structures to expose rows and columns. Third parties can use the OLE-DB Simple Provider API to implement their custom data source objects.
OLE-DB Simple Provider: A Data Binding API for MSHTML
MSHTML, introduced in Internet Explorer 4.0, supports a very simple, easily-implemented API for exposing data to HTML pages. The API supports access to string and variant data types and is built using array-like structures to expose rows and columns. Third parties can use the OLE-DB Simple Provider API to implement their custom data source objects.
Using a Data Source Object that Exposes Multiple Data Members
This article details how to use a DSO that supports multiple data members in a Web page.
Interfaces
Allows a data provider to participate in converting its data from one type to another.