NetBurner Community Forum

I can see merits to the FUNCTIONCALL tag where the VARIABLE tag isn't needed to permit
passing an argument. When the only intent is to get something done like setting the post
handler, the name is certainly more descriptive. When you don't intend to use the feature of
automatically generating page text, you don't have to return a pointer to an empty string. A
colleague suggests that we just standardize on using VARIABLE always, since we are unlikely to use the feature of passing info to the function in the URL using the ? suffix. My question is if there is any overhead advantage to one tag or the other: size of generated flash image, execution time, RAM/stack usage, etc. I'd also like to verify that there are no other considerations. Although I don't think it likely that either tag would be deprecated in the future, that would be a good example of what I mean by "other" considerations.

A colleague suggests that we just standardize on using VARIABLE always, since we are unlikely to use the feature of passing info to the function in the URL using the ? suffix.

There are some applications where the ? suffix attached to a URL call, really does come in handy.
Lets say you have designed a NetBurner with thermal switch hardware to detect an over-temperature on a device with
some heatsinks! What would be the most effective way of communicating this emergency to the owner of the equipment?
Would you email it? No. Some people never read their emails. You send an SMS text message instead to your mobile phone.
I have actually done it via a PC, since the later Internet Explorer and Mozilla browsers come with SSL as a standard plug-in.
So all you need to do is type the code below into the browser's URL task bar, and the SMS message is automatically sent.
e.g.
https://www.mynetfone/send-sms?username=[09112345]&password[XXXXXXX]&to=0404611426 &text[Over Temperature Alarm Activated 5:45 PM Friday 23rd October 09 on MyWidget Serial # 11-07-0986]
(I have delibrately blanked out the password with XXXXXXs, since I dont want to give my real one away, but everything else is real in that URL including my mobile cellphone number.)

This type of application can be certainly accomplished using an SB70LC as a webserver, to generate the URL? function call, but you would need to buy the SSL development software library option that the NetBurner Sales Dept sells for $500 USD, to accomplish this.

Kind regards
Paul
http://microwebserver.net