WebSpeed
Developer’s Guide


Overview of Embedded SpeedScript

Embedded SpeedScript provides a way for you to build Web objects directly from standard HTML files by including SpeedScript as a scripting language.

An Embedded SpeedScript file looks like a static HTML file in which you embed a section of SpeedScript code using statement escapes. The following shows a simple example where Embedded SpeedScript is used to query the Sports2000 database:

escript1.htm
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>My First Embedded SpeedScript File</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>My First Embedded SpeedScript File</H1>

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="SpeedScript">
FOR EACH Customer WHERE Name BEGINS "s":
		DISPLAY {&WEBSTREAM} Customer.
END.
</SCRIPT>
<HR>
</BODY>
</HTML> 

The HTML code in boldface shows the embedded SpeedScript. Note that SpeedScript, like JavaScript, can be embedded by using the HTML <SCRIPT> tag. However, SpeedScript differs from JavaScript with respect to execution. JavaScript typically executes on the client. SpeedScript executes entirely on the WebSpeed Transaction Server. Server-side execution allows the embedded SpeedScript to reference Web object variables and database fields from anywhere in the HTML file.

The Web object generated from escript1.htm outputs a Web page that lists all customer records in the sample Sports2000 database with names that begin with the letter “s.”

NOTE: {&WEBSTREAM} ensures that all DISPLAY statement output goes to the same stream as {&OUT}. For more information, see Handling DISPLAY Output."

When you write an HTML file that includes embedded SpeedScript, the AppBuilder converts the HTML file to a SpeedScript Web object that generates the actual Web page. This Web page can be a simple static or a complex dynamic Web page with programmatically varied content.

You can actually write embedded SpeedScript to generate one of two types of WebSpeed output file:

You can specify the type of output file to generate by using a <META> tag in the HTML head section. The default output file is a Web object. Embedded SpeedScript also supports <META> tags to specify HTTP options such as the character set of the HTML file. You can also specify <META> tag information in the HTML body using WebSpeed <!--WSMETA --> custom tags. For more information, see the "Using <META> and <!--WSMETA --> Tags" section.


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