Choosing online or offline processing

After you create a Generator template using Flash 4, you copy it to a Web server along with any associated data sources and external media content. Once on the server, Generator can process the template either online or offline.

Online processing uses the Online Generator, which is a Web server extension that can be added to software such as the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) on Windows NT or the Apache HTTP server on UNIX systems.

With the Online Generator, you insert a Generator template file in an HTML document. When the client browser opens that document, the Web server starts an instance of Generator to process the embedded template commands and to substitute variables with values defined in the template's associated data source. After the template is processed, the resulting Flash player movie or GIF, JPEG, PNG, or QuickTime movie file is served to the client browser.

Note: The Online Generator acts as a service in Windows NT. It can be started and stopped with the JRun Service Manager in the Services Control Panel. If this service is turned off, the Online Generator cannot process template files.

The Offline Generator differs from the Online Generator in three main ways:

The Offline Generator does not run as an extension of a Web server; it is started directly from a command line.
The Offline Generator directs output to a Flash player movie, GIF, PNG, JPEG, or QuickTime movie file on the Web server rather than sending the output to a client browser. The Web server can then serve this output file as it does any other file of that type.
The Offline Generator can be used to create image maps from Generator templates.

Generally, the Online Generator is better suited for Web sites where a new and unique Flash Player movie must be created for each visitor to the Web site. The Offline Generator is better suited for Web sites where the data source changes infrequently.

The main factor in choosing between online and offline processing is the amount of user information that dictates the content. Online processing is better when navigation or content is based on user information. Online generation delivers per-request customized content but requires significantly more server resources than merely serving static content per request. Use online generation when per-request customization (such as database drill downs and personalization) is a project requirement.

If the Web site content is the same for each user or requires infrequent content updates, choose offline processing to spare server resources while yielding the desired results.