Workbench User Guide > Workbench User Guide > Alternative Methods for Creating Fields > Create Fields from an External Class
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Create Fields from an External Class
You can add external controls to your form. External controls, such as charts, grid controls, HTML controls, web browsers, and ActiveX controls are available from independent software vendors. OpenROAD supports Microsoft's ActiveX technology.
These external controls have properties, methods, and events just like other class objects. Therefore, they are treated as external classes in OpenROAD. Each external object in OpenROAD must have an external class to represent it. These external classes appear as normal OpenROAD system classes. As such, they can be created and manipulated like any other class using an editor.
Note:  For more information about creating and registering external classes using the External Class Library Editor, see Create and Register External Class Libraries.
To create fields from a registered external class
1. Follow the procedure in Create and Register External Class Libraries) to create the external class libraries.
2. Open your frame in the Frame Editor (see Open an Existing Frame).
3. Click Insert, Field from External Object.
Workbench displays the Select External Object dialog, which lists all of the external objects that have been registered as OpenROAD components. Registration means that OpenROAD wrapper code has been generated for an external object's exported attributes, methods, and events.
4. Select an external object from the Select External Object dialog.
5. Click OK.
The Select External Object dialog closes.
6. Position the external object on the form (as described in Position Fields).
7. (Optional) Use the Property Inspector to reset any of the external object's default properties. For more information, see Property Inspector.
Note:  For more information about external controls and other external objects, see External Classes in the chapter "Working with Classes" of the Programming Guide.
Last modified date: 12/20/2023