What Does the Access Modifier Do in an event handler?

The access modifier in an event-handler determines whether or not a browser can access that event-handler directly by requesting that event name via an URL. The access attribute may take the value of public or private. Setting the access modifier to public allows browsers to request that event as well as allows other events to announce that event programatically. Setting the it to private denies direct access to that event-handler when a browser requests it via an url. This means that an another event-handler has to programatically announce this event for it to be run.

If you forget to define an access type for your event-handler, it will default to public. Mach-II allows you to not define an access type, however it is not best practice to rely on the framework to use the default as this could potentially introduce a security hole in your application.

We recommend that you explicitly define the access attribute when defining your event-handler. Defining an access attribute also improves the readability of your configuration file by explicitly showing the access type. By not defining an access type, you assume other developers know what the default value the Mach-II assigns is public.