Autodesk 15606-011408-9320 User Guide - Page 38

Web Browser APIs The Netscape and Internet Explorer APIs give you programmatic access to browser and document functionality. The APIs include a Document Object Model (DOM) that exposes the elements in an HTML page. With the browser APIs, you could write a script that creates a new window or frame and then outputs HTML to it dynamically. You could also create HTML pages that change dynamically on user interaction. (This is called Dynamic HTML.) Note The Document Object Models for Netscape and Internet Explorer vary somewhat. Therefore, when writing a single script for both browsers, be sure to test your script carefully in both browsers. Stand-alone Applications You can write a stand-alone C++, Visual Basic, or Java application that hosts Autodesk MapGuide Viewer without a web browser. For details about supported platforms, see "Choosing a Viewer/Browser Environment" on page 59. Server-Side Applications Server-side applications run on the server (or host), creating or processing data and serving it to the client machine. A server-side application (also known as a server app) might be a counter that shows how many times a site has been visited, or it might be a database that builds and serves HTML pages dynamically. The Autodesk MapGuide LiteView Extension, used to display raster maps without a browser, is also an example of a server-side application. In Autodesk MapGuide, server-side applications are typically used to generate and serve reports or to allow map data on the server to be updated by a user from his or her browser. Please note that these applications are typically a combination of client-side and server-side applications, but for the sake of simplicity, they are discussed here as server-side applications. 38 | Chapter 2 Understanding Autodesk MapGuide