Glossary
A
- action behavior
- An AppComposer behavior that receives an event as a stimulus and responds by
invoking a method on an actor.
- action group behavior
- A convenience allowing you to group several behaviors so they can be moved
or copied as a unit.
- action target
- An actor to which a method is sent.
- activate
- To send the stimulus to a behavior that causes it to execute.
- activation event
- An event that activates a behavior.
- actor
- An AppComposer component to which you can assign behaviors. AppComposer
allows you to use any JavaBean component as an actor. Also, an alias
referring to the first actor above a behavior in the AppComposer capsule hierarchy.
- alias
- One of the three pseudovariables,
capsule, parent,
or actor, that refer to the specific entity fulfilling that role
above the reference entity in the capsule hierarchy. These aliases allow you
to define behaviors that you can easily reuse by linking the behavior to a
relative, rather than absolute, element in the capsule.
- applet
- A small (typically) application that is downloaded in a web browser and
executes on the web client.
- AWT
- Abstract Windowing Toolkit, the components used to build a user interface
in Java applications.
B
- bean
- A Java component.
- behavior
- An AppComposer entity having a stimulus and a response, used to cause an actor
to do something, to communicate with another actor, or to respond to user
input.
-
C
- capsule
- In AppComposer, a means of organizing an application into modules,
each having a hierarchy of components. A capsule itself is a component that
can be contained in other capsules. Also, an alias referring to the capsule
that contains the actor or behavior using the alias.
- child
- An entity that is directly beneath another in the capsule hierarchy. Child
behaviors and actors in AppComposer do not follow Java inheritance rules.
- client
- A computer or program that requests resources from a server. For example,
a web client (browser) requests web pages from a web server. A program can
act as both client and server; for example, a web server acts as a client
when it requests data from a database server.
- component
- A persistent reusable building block of code that works as one functional
unit and can be used in various applications. An instance of a component is
called an actor.
- conditional behavior
- A behavior with an embedded ifTest. When a conditional behavior receives
its stimulus, it evaluates the associated ifTest, generating an
ifTrue
event if the result is true, or an ifFalse event if the result
is false.
- connection pool
- A group of database connections that remain open for any transactions that
need them, so that a transaction can use them without the overhead of opening
and closing them explicitly.
- cookie
- A text file sent by a web server, which the web browser stores on the client
and sends back in response to requests from the same web server, used by AppComposer
to store a session identifier.
- counter behavior
- An AppComposer behavior that counts time, starting when it receives its stimulus,
and generates specified events at specified intervals until it reaches the
specified stopping point.
D
- deactivate
- To cause a behavior to stop executing.
- deploy
- To move a file into a production environment where it can be used. Typically
this involves making war or jar files available to a server.
- distributed application
- An application whose parts run on more than one computer across a network.
E
- editing handle
- Small tabs attached to a AppComposer actor or behavior, visible in the toybox,
that allow you to modify the entity to which they are attached.
- EJB
- Enterprise JavaBean, a robust bean that adds portable access to services
such as database access, distributed transactions, and messaging.
- event
- An occurrence of possible interest to an application, such as a mouse click.
F - G
- form parameter
- A name and value pair derived from an input field of a web form.
- GET request
- A browser issues a GET request (part of the HTTP standard) to a web server
to request the return of a specific file or resource to the client.
H - I
- HTML
- HyperText Markup Language consists of sets of tags that mark the structure
of a web page's contents, thus enabling a web browser to determine how to
display the page.
- HTTP
- HyperText Transfer Protocol, the protocol used by web servers and browsers
to request and return web pages and other data.
J - K
- JDBC
- Java Database Connectivity, an interface that allows Java applications to
access the data in a database.
- JSP
- JavaServer Page, an HTML text file that contains calls to Java methods performed
on the server.
L
- layout view
- The view that allows you to create and modify visual actors.
- link
- A hypertext pointer from one web page to another.
- logic layer
- The programming code that manipulates the underlying data in a software
program.
M
- method
- A sequence of Java statements attached to a component that execute when
invoked, usually by sending the name of the method as a command to an actor.
- MIME
- Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension, a way of identifying the kind of content
sent over a network, used by web servers to identify what is being sent to
the web browser.
N
- nesting
- HTML elements are often nested within each other. That is, one element can
contain one or more subelements, which all take on characteristics of the
parent element. For instance, in the HTML excerpt: <OL><LI>Sample
of <EM>nesting</EM></LI></OL> the word "nesting"
is enclosed within three nested elements, and they all direct how "nesting"
would appear.
- non-visual actor
- An actor with no visible representation in the user interface.
O
- ODBC
- Open Database Connectivity, an interface that allows Java applications to
access the data in a database.
- outline view
- The AppComposer view of the capsule contents and hierarchy.
P - Q
- parent
- An entity that is directly above another in the capsule hierarchy. Also,
a AppComposer alias referring to the first entity above this behavior or actor
in the capsule hierarchy.
- POST request
- Browsers typically issue POST requests to send form data. POST requests
ask the server to execute a servlet or script to process the data sent by
the browser.
- project editor
- The AppComposer editor that helps you manage all the capsules and resources
related to your current application.
R
- response
- The method that executes, or the property modification, or the event that
is generated, when the stimulus of a behavior is received.
- run view
- The AppComposer view that allows you to see your application exactly as a user
will see it.
S
- scene
- A visible component that is a kind of container, such as a window.
- script
- A sequence of Java statements.
- script behavior
- A behavior that allows the execution of any sequence of Java code in response
to an event.
- serialize
- To turn an executable entity such as a component into data that can be sent
across a network or stored.
- server
- A computer or program satisfying the requests of a client; for example,
a web server offering resources over the world wide web.
- servlet
- An application that runs on a web server and constructs appropriate responses
to requests as they stream in from web browsers.
- ServletGet
- A predefined user behavior that ships with AppComposer, that enables
servlets to respond to GET requests from a browser.
- session
- A means by which a web server can identify multiple requests as coming from
the same web browser.
- SQL
- Structured Query Language is used to manipulate data in a relational database.
- stimulus
- The event that activates a behavior, causing its response to execute.
T
- timeline behavior
- A behavior that modifies the properties of one or more actors over time.
- toybox
- The AppComposer editor that lets you see how your application will look and
respond as you create and modify it.
U
- URL
- A Uniform Resource Locator is used to specify resources on the world wide
web, such as web pages and servlets.
- user behavior
- A named, saved, and reusable AppComposer behavior. AppComposer allows
you to create, save, and reuse behaviors, and makes them available from the
User Behavior menu.
- user interface
- Means by which a user interacts with an application - commonly, with windows,
buttons, and menus.
V
- visual actor
- An actor with a visible representation on the computer display.
W - Z
- watch variable
- A variable whose value is visible in the debugger, so that you can watch
it change.
- web page
- A file whose contents are encoded with HTML, thus permitting access from
a web browser such as Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer.
- web server
- A process or computer that serves as a repository of a set of resources
such as text, images, processes or applications, or other downloadable files.
This process can be local, such as AppComposer's debug web server, or can reside
on a publicly-accessible machine connected to the world wide web.
© 2003 DigiSlice Corporation