=head1 NAME

Jifty::Manual::Glossary

=head1 GLOSSARY

We use words.  This is what they mean.

=over 4

=item action

An B<action> is a specifically designed RPC call that can do something to the
system, with any number of declared L</parameter>s.  At runtime, an action
can take L</argument>s, which it L</canonicalize>s, L</validate>s, and then
uses to do something useful.  Each action has a L</result>.  See
L<Jifty::Action> and L<Jifty::Manual::Actions>.

=item active

For an L</action> to run, it needs to be B<active>.  Most of the time, all
actions submitted are active, but it is possible to specify only a specific
action as active; any non-active actions are ignored.  See L<Jifty::Request>.

=item AJAX

An acronym standing for B<Asynchronous Javascript And XML>.  Though technically
incorrect, it is the buzzword that describes doing asynchronous requests to the
server while the user waits.  This can lead to very "dynamic" pages, as the
browser does not need to refresh the entire page to update a small section of
the screen.  In Jifty, the sections of the screen are called L</region>s.  See
L<Jifty::Web::PageRegion>.

=item argument

An B<argument> is a user-supplied input to fill in a L</parameter> in an
L</action>.  See L<Jifty::Action>.

=item canonicalize

To turn an L</argument> into a more standard form.  For instance, a
canonicalizer could translate a user-typed date into a date object or a
SQL-formatted date string.  See L<Jifty::Action>.

=item constructor

A property of a L</parameter>; the action B<must> have an argument value for
this paramater in order to be constructed.  This is different from
L</mandatory>, in that the user can leave mandatory fields empty.  For
instance, the C<id> of a L<Jifty::Action::Record::Update> is a constructor.
See L<Jifty::Action>.

=item continuation

A concept stolen from Lisp, Scheme, Smalltalk, and Perl 6.  The continuation of
any particular piece of code is the deferred operations that care about the
return value at that point.  In the context of Jifty, a continuation is a
deferred L</request> that may pull L</argument>s and the like from the
L</result>s of the current request.  Continuations can be arbitrarily nested,
so they are often useful to keep track of tangents that the user went on.  See
L<Jifty::Continuation>.

=item form field

A widget which the browser renders.  These are generally useful to ask the user
for a value for an L</argument> to an L</action>.  See
L<Jifty::Web::Form::Field>.

=item fragment

A section of HTML (at present, a Mason component) contained in a L</region>.
Fragments are a kind of standalone Mason component which the browser can request
individually.  Because of this, they can only take strings and scalars as
arguments, not references or objects!

=item element

A Mason component used by one or more other pages, which is not a whole page of
itself. As opposed to L<fragments|/fragment> C<elements> are strictly internal,
and never visible to the outside world by themselves. Elements typically live
under a path beginning with or containing '/_elements'. This, and the whole idea
of an element is strictly convention, but Jifty contains elements for things
like page headers, menus, and showing keybindings out of the box to make your
life easier.

=item mandatory

A property of a L</parameter>; the user must enter a value for the action to
validate.  This is the simplest level of L<validation|/validate>.

=item moniker

Every instance of a L<Jifty::Action> has a B<moniker>.  A moniker is
an arbitrary-length nonempty string containing no semicolons.
Monikers serve as identifiers for actions, to associate arguments with
actions and to access specific actions "by name".  Monikers need not
be globally unique, but they must be unique within a single request.
Monikers have no semantic meaning. See L<Jifty::Action/monikers>

=item parameter

A B<parameter> is a named parameter to an L</action>.  Jifty generally renders
these on the screen as L</form field>s.  See L<Jifty::Param> and
L<Jifty::Param::Schema>.

=item region

An area of the page which JavaScript can replace.  The content in the region is
a L</fragment>.  Think of the region as the box and the fragment as the content
in the box.  See L<Jifty::PageRegion>.

=item request

A single query which lists L</action>s to run, together with a page or list of
L</fragment>s to return.  This most often comes from the browser as query
parameters, but may come from other sources as a L<JSON> or L<YAML> POST
request.  The answer to a request is a L</response>.  See L<Jifty::Request>.

=item response

The answer to a L</request>, it contains a L</result> for every action that
ran.  See L<Jifty::Response>.

=item result

The answer to a L</action>, it contains information about if the action was a
success or failure, and further detail about why or how.  It can also contain
arbitrary "content".  See L<Jifty::Result>.

=item sticky

A property of L</form field>s.  If a field is "sticky," values that the user
entered appear there again when the page is rendered again, avoiding making the
user type them again.  Most L</action>s have form fields which are sticky on
failure, so the user can update the information and try again.

=item validate

To check that the provided value of an L</argument> is a possible value for it
to have.  See L<Jifty::Web::Form::Field>.

=back

=cut
