How does it work?

The OZONE Application Builder is used to create scripts. These scripts can be sent over the Internet, or run on a local machine. They are read by a piece of playback software. There are two pieces or playback software, the OZONE runtime application, and the OZONE ActiveX control. The runtime application executes the script so you can see the application in its own window. The OZONE ActiveX control allows programmers to embed an OZONE application in a Web page, or some other application that uses ActiveX controls, like C++ or Visual Basic.

OZONE itself uses ActiveX controls as the building blocks of the application. Each ActiveX control has to be programmed to perform a certain task at a certain time. This is done through the property and methods of each control.  The values in the properties and settings for the methods are recorded in the script. The properties and methods themselves are part of the ActiveX Controls and may be familiar to users of other programs that use ActiveX controls. These properties and methods are wrapped in a set of OZONE properties and methods that tell OZONE when to execute the line.  OZONE  sends data between controls when requested with the @Get or @Set functions. This way data can be shared between controls under program control. OZONE can also call methods in control A from control B if required.

Each control generates events as a result of their activities. A developer can use an event as a trigger to bring up a new control. This kind of event driven branching is very handy. One has to be careful not to fill memory with too many controls at once so we let developers kill controls as they need.

The Application Builder allows the developer to use one or all of four different user interfaces to build a script (flowchart, spreadsheet, workform grid, or GUI output). These user interfaces are called Views. The views are different ways of looking at and creating the same script. We have found that during the development process it is very helpful to synchronize the open views as the script is running in preview mode. This allows the developer to find problems quickly.

The playback system reads the script and starts the controls when the script says they are needed. It also manages communication between controls and shuts them down according to instructions in the script. As OZONE plays a script it goes through each line of the script and passes the values in the script to the corresponding ActiveX Control. When instructed the system waits for an input, or branch. When one of these occurs a new ActiveX control is instantiated (realized) and processing continues from there. Branches are matched to target controls and the target controls are realized on demand.

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