A static query involves the interaction of a HTML file, an Internet Data Query (IDQ) script, and an Extended HTML Template (HTX) file. The following figure illustrates the interaction among these components.
The substance of this interaction is quite simple. An HTML form posts a query to an IDQ file. The query is executed by the IDQ file, which pipes the results of the query to an HTX file identified in the IDQ file. And that's that. In fact, this process was graphically illustrated in the section "Index Server in Action," which appears earlier in this chapter. In this section, let's take a look at the details of how this output is produced.