Glossary

bulletin	An area at the top of each Web page that can be used to display notices such as error messages or warnings. The bulletin is invisible unless notices have been added to it with the ClientRequest methods `addMessageToBulletin` or `addErrorsToBulletin`.
client request	An incoming HTTP request from a browser or other client (as opposed to a data request, which is used internally by a Fiz application to manipulate application data); dispatched by Fiz to an interactor for servicing. A Java `ClientRequest` object is used to hold information about the request while it is being serviced. The `ClientRequest` object is passed to many of the methods that render the page. Here are a few of the things you can access using a `ClientRequest` object: Information about the request such as its main dataset. An `Html` object used to render the page. The `HttpServletRequest` and `HttpServletResponse` objects provided by Tomcat.
configuration dataset	A dataset stored as a file, which provides static configuration information used by a Fiz application. Some configuration datasets are used by Fiz; (for example, `main` provides overall parameters, `css` provides parameters used to generate CSS, and `help` provides help text for form entries. Other configuration datasets are used by extensions, or by applications.
configuration properties	A collection of name-value pairs that are passed to the constructor for a section to configure the section. Configuration properties are represented using a dataset.
data manager	A Fiz component that provides access to data used in Web pages. Each data manager class supports a particular kind of data source, such as a relational database, Excel spreadsheet file , news feed, or external application. Data managers are accessed using data request objects. More details
data request	An object that is used to read or write data managed by a data manager. The existence of explicit data request objects allows multiple requests to be serviced in parallel. More details
dataset	A hierarchical collection of name-value pairs, used for many purposes in Fiz. Datasets are represented in memory using the class `Dataset` and its subclasses; they can be stored on disk in forms such as XML and YAML. More details
entry method	The top-level application method invoked by the Fiz dispatcher to handle an incoming HTTP request. Either a method in an `Interactor` class, or a static method in a `Section` class. More details
`fiz` tool	A command-line program named `fiz` that you can invoke to perform various tasks related to managing applications, such as creating a new application, adding an extension to an application, or upgrading an application to use a new version of Fiz.
form element	A Java class (subclass of `FormElement`) that displays a particular value (or collection of related values) in a form, and allows the value(s) to be edited.
image family	A collection of related images used to customize the display of a section or other component. All of the images in a family are stored in the same directory and share the same name prefix. For example, `checkbox-true.png` and `checkbox-false.png` might constitute a family of images used to display a `CheckboxImage` element, where `checkbox-true.png` will be displayed for true values and `checkbox-false.png` will be displayed for false values. The family name for the family is the common portion of the name plus the extension, `checkbox.png` in this example. When customizing the display of a section or other component, the family name is passed in as a configuration property.
interactor	A Java class that provides top-level entry points for one or more HTTP requests. Each public method corresponds to a different URL; most methods generate Web pages by creating and then rendering a collection of sections.
main dataset	A dataset associated with each client request that stores global information for the request. Fiz initializes the main dataset to hold any query values, form data, or Ajax input data associated with the request. An application may add additional values to the main dataset containing information that should be globally available throughout the servicing of the request.
page property	A piece of state related to a particular Web page, which is retained by Fiz after the page has been rendered so that it will be accessible during later Ajax requests and form posts emanating from the page.
section	The primary building block out of which Web pages are created. Each section is responsible for displaying a region of the Web page; it may also include Javascript code that provides dynamic behavior to the section, and may support Ajax requests for dynamically changing the content of the section. Sections are implemented as subclasses of the `Section` Java class. More details
template	A string that is expanded by substituting dynamically-computed values at various places in the string. Fiz templates are generally simpler than those in other frameworks. Small templates are commonly embedded in Java classes and used to render HTML, Javascript, and URLs. More details