Mozilla ActiveX Control

Mozilla ActiveX Control serves to execute ActiveX content inside Firefox. Consequently, it can also be used by developers in order to implement the Mozilla engine inside applications.

It uses the Gecko layout and was built to provide a fully programmable HTML / XML control that may be used in open-source development projects.

Mozilla ActiveX Control has been designed to follow the same line as Internet Explorer’s ActiveX component, which allowed for easy porting of the IE engine throughout various applications.

It doesn’t suffice to say that Mozilla ActiveX Control is similar to IE’s ActiveX control, it is, in fact, as close as it can get in functionality. The Mozilla component implements the same interfaces that are to be found in IE’s API, namely IWebBrowser and DWebBrowserEvents.

As such, developers can port existing IE code to Mozilla based applications in a matter of minutes, depending on the complexity of the project. Some may require HTML modifications, but it’s all doable, nonetheless.

On the downside, Mozilla ActiveX Control is no longer under active development and hasn’t been for quite a while now. The last time it was updated was sometime in the year of 2005, not to mention the fact that it’s based on an outdated Mozilla engine.

It was built in accordance with an old edition of the Mozilla Suite and can execute ActiveX content in versions of Firefox up to 1.5. In other words, the ActiveX control, in unmodified form, is not suitable for building or porting modern applications because it is not compliant with modern browser technologies.

However, at the time, the effort was highly appreciated and the initiative gained quite the crowd of fans. Considering its popularity back then makes us wonder about the greatness level that could have been achieved it the project had been actively maintained.