New to WebClient

T

tekstylez

New Member
Hi everyone, been reading random posts on this forum to understand more about webclient. I've been working with Progress on a character based system, but now we're trying to move over to the GUI end and using webclient. After reading the posts, I just wanted to make sure I'm understanding webclient correctly...

Webclient is GUI, no connection to the database at all. The GUI interface will call applications on the local progress server which connects to the database and returns output to the GUI screen? Assuming that there will be a constant connection between the GUI and the local server once a "login" occurs(on the GUI side)...does this mean the communication for output to the GUI interface will be similar to how output works on character based systems?(ie. Frame A is setup on GUI, application displays "hi" in Frame A, Frame A opens on GUI with "hi"). I'm assuming we'll also have to work with asynchronous requests being that we have many users that will be in the system at once.

Also, I'm not sure how deployment will work for our users. How would we setup webclient to run on all of our users' systems?

I know this is somewhat long, I'm just trying to get a better understanding of the system so I can get started in setting it up. Our company at the moment is using a character based system that handles receiving, storage, and shipment of freight. I've been trying to browse through some documentation on Webclient, but I could use a better explanation to figure out what would be best for us. Any reply to this would be much appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Basic setup is as follows:

Webclient ---> AppServer ----> DB

The WebClient (on the client machine) connects to a Progress Appserver to get/post data to the DB.

An AppServer connection is required per WebClient installation (licensing issue). There is no direct connection to the Database.

To distribute the application to a clients machine you can either:
1. install via a CD
2. add an installation link on your local intranet.

The webclient portion can perform anything that the GUI client can perform but the only limitation is direct database connectivity. So you basically need to work with temp-tables to get/post your data.

If you are unsure of how to implement the WebClient further .... and you can't find the information you need in the whitepapers (or online documentation) ... then I'd either get in touch with a local Progress consultant, Progress Education services, or Progress Professional Services. While it is fairly easy to develop in this environment, in may be too much of a paradigm switch to go straight from CHUI to WebClient without having a complete understanding of how this implementation works.

Or you can ask questions here or at www.peg.com but you may not get the detailed responses you would expect.

But I'd definitely start with the Progress Documentation ...

http://documentation.progress.com/output/Progress91E/wwhelp/wwhimpl/java/html/wwhelp.htm

Then goto section 4GL --> Progress on the Web.

Give that a thorough read and you may get a better idea of what WebClient is all about.

Later,
Gordon

PS - sorry if this post seems a little disjointed but there is a lot to mention and I know that I'm not going to get everything. Start with the documentation that get into the details that you may require ....
 
Re:

Thanks Gordon, I'll def look into the documentation. I just wanted to get a quick understanding of how it would work, which you helped me on. Now I'll look into more detail as to what needs to be done. Thanks again.

Brian
 
Re:

Thanks for the help guys.

One quick question, about the communication between the GUI and the AppServer, I'm assuming I'll be using shared temp-tables between the two applications being that the application on the AppServer will be gathering the information and GUI app will display it?
 
No. You will be passing the temp-tables as parameters. eg:

INPUT-OUTPUT TEMP-TABLE ttCustomer

Temp-tables are not shared between the Client and AppServer session that is why you need to pass them as parameters.

later,
Gordon
 
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