When to Use an iScript

iScripts give you complete control over the HTML sent to the browser. This enables flexibility in creating a user interface. However, there are some responsibilities that you inherit when choosing to use iScripts.

• You are responsible for creating HTML and JavaScript that is cross-browser compatible.

• You are responsible for ensuring that all the text sent to the browser is stored in either the message catalog or in HTML definitions to enable translation of the text.

• iScripts aren't part of the regular Component Processor flow, so you are responsible for accessing the database in a multi-language, multi-market, and multi-currency sensitive way. (Do this by using a Component Interface to access the database.)

For these reasons, PeopleSoft recommends that you first try to build a page in Application Designer. This approach enables PeopleTools to generate all of the HTML in a cross-browser, multi-language, multi-market, and multi-currency sensitive way.

You don't have to use an iScript to generate an entire page. You can use the Request and Response objects with an HTML area, so you can develop a portion of your HTML using the iScript objects, while allowing the majority of it to be generated by the Component Processor. If you use this method, instead of using the Response object's Write and WriteLine methods to output your HTML, you set the value of the HTML area to the HTML that you want to display. Remember, that just as with an iScript, you must ensure that the HTML you generate is cross-browser compatible and multi-market sensitive.

So when should you use iScripts? Here are two scenarios where iScripts would be an appropriate choice:

• The page being developed cannot be built using Application Designer. An example of this is a page that requires more than one HTML form. PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture places the entire page inside of a single form tag, so no other HTML form tags can be added. In this case the requirements of the page can't be met by pages created in Application Designer, so use iScripts instead.

  Note: You should use Component Interfaces for all database access so you have multi-language and multi-currency sensitivity.

• The page being developed never accesses the database. Using a page and Component Processor for this type of page incurs unnecessary processing overhead. An example of this is a page that talks to another website and redisplays HTML from the remote site.