In this chapter, we have shown samples of DHTML code that may evolve into scriptlets. We talked about HTML code reusability and the new role of scripting. Originally, it was nothing more than the glue to put together the constituent objects of a Web page. With the advent of DHTML a Web page has been enriched, and now you can see that it is formed by two basic components: the content and the code to change it. Scripting, therefore, gains another level of importance and becomes more like a programming language, in the sense that it is now capable of producing output that modifies the content and the user interface. The union of DHTML object model and scripts brings scriptlets to light. A second name for scriptlets might have been ActiveX Script Controls, that is ActiveX controls made up purely of VBScript and JavaScript code.
We've gone through the similarities and the differences that feature ActiveX and script components, and provided an overview of what scriptlets actually are. Our goal, in this chapter, was to help you understand the background, rather than the details—which will be covered in the rest of the book. We addressed important topics such as cross-platform and cross-browser compatibility, security and performance. Finally, we outlined some possible guidelines for further enhancements of this technology.
In particular, this chapter covered