Version: 1.8.4
Add advanced web (HTTP and HTTPS) communications from either a client application or another Web Server.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I use this product to transfer files securely?
A: Yes, HTTPS is perfect for transferring a file securely.
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Q: Do your HTTP products support Client Authentication?
A: The WebASP control, found in the Web Enterprise Tool, has full support for Client Authentication while the Web control, found in the Web Tool, does not.
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Q: Do your products support Microsoft Proxy(NTLM Authentication)?
A: The Web control found in the Web Tool and the Web Enterprise Tool can be used with Microsoft Proxy. The WebASP control found in the Web Enterprise Tool will not work with Microsoft Proxy.
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Q: How do I deploy Excel spreadsheets that use PowerTCP ActiveX controls?
A: Unfortunately, there is no consistent model for 3rd party component support across Office products and versions. The recommended usage in Excel is to use the product as a reference rather than inserting it as a control. Also, if the spreadsheet ever had a PowerTCP control inserted at any previous time, that data was cached by Excel and a new spreadsheet will be required. When deploying to users, please refer to "Distribution under Internet Information Server" in the documentation for instructions as the technique is the same.
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Q: How will I be affected if I have installed Windows XP SP2?
A: Microsoft Windows XP SP2 is a large update to the Windows XP operating system. The focus of this update is to tighten system security. One of those features is the built-in firewall. By default, Microsoft will turn on the firewall and block all applications from communicating over the Internet. As most PowerTCP products are designed for building Internet applications, those applications may be blocked from accessing the network. The solution to this problem, as it is for any application that needs to access the network, is to grant permission using Microsoft’s configuration utility. Instructions on using the Microsoft firewall are at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/internet/sp2_wfintro.mspx, and more information about manual network security configuration is available by reading Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 842242 . Also, Microsoft will disallow using ActiveX controls in Internet Explorer by default. It your web application uses PowerTCP ActiveX controls in IE, your users will have to manually adjust their security settings to allow ActiveX usage. If you find any other problems with SP2 and PowerTCP products, please contact Dart support at support@dart.com.
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Q: I am dynamically instantiating your ActiveX control in .NET but when I deploy my application I am always getting a trial message.
A: There is a known bug in the .NET Framework that prevents ActiveX components from being licensed properly when they are dynamically instantiated. Currently, the workaround is to place the control on a form and instantiate an instance of that form without actually showing it. Microsoft is aware of the problem and we are currently looking at other workarounds for the problem.
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Q: I am having a problem using your ActiveX Controls in .NET. Are there any issues I should know about?
A: The following error has been experienced by some customers:

"The referenced component could not be found. Invalid Primitive Type: System.Reflection.Missing. Only CLS compliant primitive types can be used. Consider using CodeObjectCreateExpression."

SP3 for Framework 1.0 and SP1 for Framework 1.1 broke compatibility with some ActiveX controls. You need to download a hotfix from Microsoft.

Anyone you distribute your app to will also have to run this hotfix until Microsoft releases SP4 for Framework 1.0 and SP2 for Framework 1.1


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Q: I don’t know the first thing about SSL. Can you give me an overview that relates it to your product?
A: Basically, once a TCP connection is established, the server identifies itself with a special digital certificate that identifies it as “trustedE Optionally, the server may then require the client to identify itself with a digital certificate. If the respective certificates “pass musterE then all data is encrypted/decrypted using public key technology. PowerTCP makes all this as transparent as possible, while giving you the greatest control over accepting/rejecting certificates.
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Q: I exported a certificate from my UNIX operating system to use with your product in SSL mode, but it doesn't seem to work.
A: Our implementation requires that a certificate be properly imported into a valid Microsoft Certificate Store. If you are importing a certificate that was created from a non-MS source (such as OpenSSL), please be sure that you export the certificate properly before attempting to import it into an MS Cert store. Check the docs for whatever SSL system you are using for this info. Also, make sure that when you export your certificate, regardless of your SSL library, that it includes the private key. A certificate that is exported without a private key can not be used as a valid certificate when imported into the Microsoft Certificate Store.
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Q: I have a web page that embeds your ActiveX control that works on my development machine. On another machine, a red 'X' appears or the controls shows the Trial Message.
A: The problem is that a runtime license needs to be provided for the control. Resolution: Get LPK_TOOL.EXE from Microsoft. You can find it in their Cabinet Development kit. It is also on one of the CDs that comes with Visual Studio. Use the LPK_TOOL to create an .lpk file for YOUR control. We can't stress YOUR control enough. In other words, let's say that you have a control called MyControl that contains several Dart controls. When choosing the control in the LPK_TOOL listbox, choose MyControl, NOT the Dart Controls. Again, we can't stress this part enough as it is ALWAYS the part that is missed. Add the following to your document BEFORE any other objects are declared. Make sure LPKNAME.LPK is the name of YOUR lpk: <OBJECT CLASSID=clsid:5220cb21-c88d-11cf-b347-00aa00a28331> <PARAM NAME='LPKPath' VALUE='LPKNAME.LPK'>
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Q: I see that you changed the interface…
A: Yes, the WebASP control was designed using COM objects that are also used by the WebServer control. It was important for us to provide consistency between these two products because customers often use both controls within a single design (not to mention the fact that our designs continue to improve).
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Q: I want to display a web page that I retrieved with the Web control or the WebASP control just like a Web browser, do you have a control for that?
A: No. Our products are designed to retieve information from the Web and assist you in extracting information from those pages. We do not have a product that will graphically display the information you retrieved (like Internet Explorer). One option is to use Microsoft's WebBrowser control to load content. For example, you could drag and drop the control onto a form and then use the following: WebBrowser1.Document.body.innerHTML = sHTML The value of sHTML is the HTML text returned by one of our products.
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Q: I want to use your control in a non-VB environment (e.g. Sybase or Borland) AND create it dynamically. It works on my development machine, but elsewhere it throws a license error.
A: PowerTCP uses what is known as ClassFactory2 licensing. This is a system developed by Microsoft as part of the COM architecture. All of the major development environments that we use support this type of licensing when a control is placed on a form, however, only VB or VBA type environments support it when the control is 'created' without a form. By created, this means Dimming as New, not CreateObject. Of the other environments, we currently only provide direct support only for dynamic usage in Visual C++. See the component wrappers for the code needed to instantiate an object with a license. ( Example: ITcp.h and ITcp.cpp included with the sample projects ) If you absolutely HAVE to use our products in a project without a form, you will need to get direction from the company that makes the environment ( Example: Borland, Sybase ) on how to use COM objects that require ClassFactory2 licensing. If contacting them is not an option or is too costly, we may be able to assist you if you have one of the higher level support options or purchase incident support.
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Q: I work in non-Microsoft environments. Can your product help me?
A: Absolutely! We ship samples written in Delphi, PowerBuilder and PowerBuilder (in addition to Visual Basic 6, Visual Basic 7 (.NET), C++, and ASP). In addition, we have customers using our products in FoxPro, Cold Fusion, Java Script, and other “COM-enabled” environments.
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Q: I’m building a secure e-commerce solution for transferring sensitive credit-card information. Can I use your product?
A: Yes, the Web control and the WebASP control will POST information securely. If you need to accept HTTPS connections, however, you need the PowerTCP WebServer Tool.
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Q: In Powerbuilder, the hourglass cursor does not persist when the Dart control is busy. How can I keep the hourglass?
A: Unlike other environments, the interface is automatically disabled when the cursor changes to an hourglass in Powerbuilder.

Including the code below will allow the hourglass to persist, but it will not automatically disable the interface. To produce the usual hourglass behavior, the interface must be explicitely disabled and enabled by the user.

//In the external global function declarations
FUNCTION ulong SetCapture(ulong a) LIBRARY "user32.dll"
FUNCTION boolean ReleaseCapture()
LIBRARY "user32.dll"

//In the script
ulong ll_handle, ll_rc
ll_handle = Handle(this)
ll_rc = SetCapture(ll_handle)
SetPointer(hourglass!)

//after done
ReleaseCapture()

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Q: Is the free trial a "full version"?
A: Yes. Your trial download is identical to the purchased product. The only difference is the trial download will only work for 30 days.
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Q: Is there any way to use certificates from LocalMachine in ASP.NET?
A: The solution is to login into the machine as the AspNet user (after setting the password for the account as an admin). You can then use MMC to import a certificate into the AspNet CurrentUser/My account, and this certificate will be accessible in ASP.NET applications.
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Q: Is this product interoperable with the .NET framework?
A: .NET COM interop is used to utilize this control within .NET, and a Visual Basic 7 sample is provided.
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Q: So I can use the WebASP control to dynamically harvest data from any ASP page and present it to the browser as if it were local?
A: Yes, imagine the possibilities! You can use the WebASP on any ASP page to dynamically retrieve remote web content, modify it (or not), and display it to the user as if it was present on the web server referenced. Is this cool, or what?
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Q: Why am I getting a Type Mismatch error in VBScript?
A: When using our controls in VBScript, you must specify optional parameters to prevent Type Mismatch errors.
For example, to zip a file with the FileStore, you need to create a SpanSettings instance:

Dim span
Set span = CreateObject("Dart.SpanSettings.1")
...
Zip1.FileStore.Zip("c:\Test\test.zip", span)

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Q: Why did you re-develop WININET functionality for the WebASP control?
A: Microsoft cautions against using WININET.DLL on ASP pages. Largely because of this server-side limitation, we developed the WebASP control that was written from scratch, using Microsoft’s Crypto API to implement the HTTPS part.
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Q: Can I use an ActiveX control in a .NET Windows Service?
A:

Yes, with reservations, particularly for server-side controls. Dart ActiveX controls require a message pump to process events. Unfortunately, .NET services do not implement a message pump. Therefore, server-side controls (Server, WebServer, FtpServer, etc) that require events to function cannot be used effectively in .NET services.

It may be possible for the user to implement a message pump on the application level in a .NET service.  We encourage our users to post working solutions on our forum.

Also, licensing of ActiveX controls in .NET requires the presence of the development license in the registry of the machine running the service.  The registry location of the license is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Dart / PowerTCP / License
This requirement is the same as for ASP deployment, and is further outlined on the Distribution page of the help file, under the heading "Distribution Under IIS."

As always, Dart controls can be used in a COM environment to develop Windows services (for example, with the PowerTCP Service control).

 


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Q: Can I use the ActiveX controls in a scripting language such as VBScript?
A:

Yes, in most environments the ActiveX controls can be used in a scripting engine such as VBScript.

 

However, while the controls will work on 64 bit machines in compiled environments such as VB6 and VC++, they are limited to 32 bit Operating Systems in scripting environments.


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