FlashConnect application types

FlashConnect can be used to build Static and Dynamic application types.

Application Type	Description
Static (also referred to as inactive)	A FlashConnect application that builds static Web pages does so without processing input from the user. When static Web pages are built from a rarely changing set of data, static FlashConnect applications are the best choice. For example, a static application might generate a catalog of products being sold. Since there is no need for user input, these pages are the least taxing on the underlying operating system and database, and the Web site can be updated from the database during low activity periods.
Dynamic (also referred to as active)	A dynamic application generates Web pages containing information from a database from a user interaction. A dynamic application may require persistent resources. Persistence is the capability for resources to remain allocated, and information to remain available to a specific application while Web pages are processed. These resources and information make up the state of the application and fall into two categories: Persistent data—memory, common and BASIC application, and variables Persistent connections—peripheral devices, record locks, and item locks This type of use shows the strengths of FlashConnect dynamic applications. FlashConnect, not the BASIC programmer, keeps track of the state of Web pages. From the programmer’s point of view, dynamic applications look very much like BASIC applications. This allows the BASIC programmer to focus on writing an application, not on managing Web pages.

Application Type

Description

Static (also referred to as inactive)

A FlashConnect application that builds static Web pages does so without processing input from the user. When static Web pages are built from a rarely changing set of data, static FlashConnect applications are the best choice.

For example, a static application might generate a catalog of products being sold. Since there is no need for user input, these pages are the least taxing on the underlying operating system and database, and the Web site can be updated from the database during low activity periods.

Dynamic (also referred to as active)

A dynamic application generates Web pages containing information from a database from a user interaction. A dynamic application may require persistent resources. Persistence is the capability for resources to remain allocated, and information to remain available to a specific application while Web pages are processed. These resources and information make up the state of the application and fall into two categories:

Persistent data—memory, common and BASIC application, and variables
Persistent connections—peripheral devices, record locks, and item locks

This type of use shows the strengths of FlashConnect dynamic applications. FlashConnect, not the BASIC programmer, keeps track of the state of Web pages. From the programmer’s point of view, dynamic applications look very much like BASIC applications. This allows the BASIC programmer to focus on writing an application, not on managing Web pages.

The following table provides comparisons.

Question	Static	Dynamic
What limits the simultaneous user count?	httpd server	httpd, database server, total database licenses, number of phantoms, or available number of FlashConnect processes.
What is the relative speed?	Faster	Faster
Is user authentication available?	No	Yes
Is information from the user or the Web environment available?	No	Yes
Are the w3Html functions available?	Yes	Yes
Can the user’s input be immediately processed by an application?	No	Yes
Can cookies be set?	Yes	Yes
Can cookies be evaluated?	No	Yes