Dynamic content and web services complement each other. Flare topics generated from HTML5 targets can use JavaScript to call a web service to show dynamic content based on what is returned from the web service.
An advantage of dynamic content is it is always up-to-date. Disadvantages include slower loading times due to extra scripting and inaccessible content when the web service server is down or busy.
A dynamic approach works well if the web service can be called from the open Internet, preferably without credentials. But what if a web service is behind a firewall or requires a name and password?
Well there are advantages to static content. Static content loads faster. There is also a single location. If the single location is accessible, the content is accessible. There are fewer dependencies.
A previous post described the creation of Flare topics and TOCs using a VB.NET client and Linq to XML. All that is left is to make the web service call in the client and to use the results in the XML programming interface.
This comes in handy when the primary access point to content in a silo is a web service. A similar approach can be taken when the content silo is a database. Just replace web service call with query.
There is really no great leap if you are already creating topics with a client that supports an XML programming interface and web service calls. What kind of web service returned information would you like to see appear in Flare generated content? What platform would you use?