EXPORT Types

EXPORTed variables are saved in one of three ways:

• State table Variables that are given the flag TABLE, or are not currently in a LOOP or non-ROW SQL, are written to the state table (vortex). These are known as state-table variables. Variables which have large values, only change once per invocation, or are used globally are best saved this way. A user name, or "shopping cart" list of items selected so far are typical examples.

• URL state Variables that are given the flag URL, or are in a loop, have their current value(s) saved, but encoded to the URL instead. These are known as URL state variables. Variables which have small values, or multiple values per invocation (with each value to go to a different URL) are best saved as URL state variables. A good example is the id field for each result of a first-level query: each id goes to a different URL, for details on that hit. URL state variables also avoid the overhead of reading and writing to the state table, and thus let the script run somewhat faster.

• Query string Variables that are given the flag QUERY are saved as a URL-encoded query-string to the special variable $urlq. This can be useful for tracking script usage in web server logs, as the Vortex variables will be in plain view. It can also be used to export variables to another script.

When $url is printed, its value will reflect both the encoded URL state variables (if any), as well as a handle to the state-table variables. Similarly, when $urlq is printed, query-string variables are reflected in it.

The state table is written to only once during a given script invocation, to save transaction time. It is written the first time $url is printed when at least one state-table variable is set. At that point all state-table variables are saved.

URL state variables, however, are saved to the $url value every time it is printed (the same is true for $urlq).

Any EXPORTed variables that are not set when $url/$urlq is printed are not exported at that time.