Operating mode of dynamic AWP pages

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Operating mode of dynamic AWP pages

Reminder: Operating mode of dynamic WEBDEV pages

Operating mode of AWP pages

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Operating mode of dynamic AWP pages

Reminder: Operating mode of dynamic WEBDEV pages

The WEBDEV session

The following operations are performed when a dynamic WEBDEV page is displayed:

Asking for page display.
Starting WEBDEV engine. This engine will remain on the server until the end of application.
Creating the application context. This context will remain on the server until the end of application.
The WEBDEV engine runs the server code and builds the HTML page (from the data found in the database for example).
Once the HTML page is entirely built, the server transmits the result to the client (the browser).

The page contexts

A page context is automatically created on the server whenever a page displayed in the browser. This page context contains all the elements that have been required to build the page viewed by the Web user:

global variables,
local variables,
the server processes,
database connections,
the file contexts, etc.

The page contexts remain in memory on the server until the end of WEBDEV session.

If the same page is called several times:

If PageDisplay is called to display the page, the page context is destroyed and re-created.
If PageRefresh is called to display the page, the same page context is re-used.

Programming

The WEBDEV session and the page contexts are automatically managed by default. There is nothing to program.

Operating mode of AWP pages

What is an AWP page?

An AWP page (Active WEBDEV Page) is a dynamic WEBDEV page without persistent context on the server. The AWP page context is temporary. It is created in a temporary session.

Reminder: In a dynamic WEBDEV site, each displayed page owns a persistent page context for the entire lifetime of the session on the server.

Operating mode of AWP sites

The following elements are automatically created on the server when an AWP page is displayed in the browser:

a temporary session,
a temporary AWP page context.

The temporary session contains all the elements that have been used to build the page viewed by the Web user:

local variables,
the server processes,
database connections,
the file contexts, etc.

When the AWP page is sent to the Web user, these elements are destroyed.

How to share information (values) between AWP pages?

Two methods are used to share information (values) between AWP pages:

Passing information in the URL. This method allows for a better referencing.
Saving information in the AWP contexts (by programming).

Passing information (values) between two pages in the URL
It is possible to pass information from one page to another via the URL. The URL has the following format: "http:\\Web server\...\mypage.awp?NameParam1=Value1&NameParam2=Value2".
This method allows a better page referencing because the information passed in the URL is visible and analyzed by the referencing robots.

Saving information (values) in the AWP contexts (by programming)
You have the ability to store on the server values common to several AWP pages, via the AWP contexts. An AWP context is created on disk on the server. This context is available as long as AWP pages are displayed and as long as the timeout of AWP contexts is not exceeded. The timeout of AWP contexts is defined in the WEBDEV administrator ("Configuration" tab, "Timeout of AWP contexts" option).
To manage AWP contexts, use functions such as DeclareAWPContext, FreeAWPContext, etc, ...
See AWP: Managing contexts for more details.