Initially focused on animation, early versions of Flash content offered few interactivity features and thus had very limited scripting capability.
More recent versions include ActionScript, an implementation of the ECMAScript standard which therefore has the same syntax as JavaScript, but in a different programming framework with a different associated set of class libraries. ActionScript is used to create almost all of the interactivity (buttons, text entry fields, pick lists) seen in many Flash applications.
Reverse Ajax, not unlike DHTML, LAMP, Ajax and SPA, is not a technology in itself, but a term that refers to the use of a group of technologies together. These technologies include:
Ajax for handling the data on the client side in a smooth and interactive way, and passing data between server and client.
A technology for pushing server data to a browser
Comet, a connection between a server and client is kept open, by slowly loading a page in a hidden frame.
Piggyback, extra data is added (piggybacked) onto a normal client-server interaction.
Polling, the client repetitively queries (poll) the server.
Reverse Ajax is different from Ajax, as Reverse Ajax is a suite of technologies for pushing data from a server to a client. These technologies are built upon an Ajax framework.
A JavaScript library is a library of pre-written JavaScript controls which allow for easier development of JavaScript-based applications, especially for AJAX and other web-centric technologies.
