In computer programming, and particularly in Microsoft Windows programming, third party software component refers to a reusable software component developed to be either freely distributed or sold by an entity other than the original vendor of the development platform.

Microsoft Visual Basic spawned the first commercially viable market for reusable software components. Visual Basic's first extensibility mechanism was the specification for VBX custom controls.

In version 4.0 of Visual Basic, the OCX custom control was introduced to replace VBX. OCX was later renamed ActiveX and then COM. In version 7.0 of Visual Basic, also known as VB.NET, Microsoft introduced the .NET Component to replace both VBX and ActiveX. It was still possible to use many ActiveX components in VB.NET by wrapping them in a .NET layer.

See Also

• Enterprise Java Beans
• VCL / CLX
• KParts (KDE)

External links

Several of the best known third party component vendors and resellers:

• ComponentOne (http://www.componentone.com/) (Full range of components)
• FarPoint (http://www.fpoint.com/) (Spreadsheet/datagrid components)
• Infragistics (http://www.infragistics.com/) (User Interface components)
• /n software (http://www.nsoftware.com/) (Internet components)
• Software/FX (http://www.softwarefx.com/) (Charting components)
• LEADTOOLS (http://www.leadtools.com/) (Imaging components)
• Java Components Store (http://www.componentsource.com/) (ComponentSource)
• VB6/ActiveX Components Store (http://www.vbxtras.com/) (VBxtras)
• .NET Components Store (http://www.xtras.net/) (Xtras.Net)

The Component Vendor Consortium (CVC) (http://www.components.org/) is a not for profit industry association dedicated to supporting organizations and developers building components and tools for the professional Windows developer.