This section explains a network installation of WebFOCUS App Studio. In a network installation, App Studio is installed on a single shared machine, rather than each developer desktop. Developers then launch App Studio on their desktops by executing files that have been installed on the shared machine. This simplifies administration, installation, and upgrading, and allows all developers to use a common preconfigured environment.
A network installation of App Studio does not include full WebFOCUS Client connectivity. After installing App Studio, you must configure it to access a WebFOCUS environment somewhere on your network. App Studio then uses the web server configuration, application server configuration, WebFOCUS Client connectivity, and WebFOCUS Reporting Server of that WebFOCUS environment.
An App Studio network installation involves the following steps:
A network installation of App Studio can consist of three types of machines. Each machine has its own requirements.
WebFOCUS requirements and installation steps are provided in the WebFOCUS and ReportCaster Installation and Configuration manual for your platform. To use Project-based development, the WebFOCUS environment must store both server files (FEX, MAS, ACX) and client files (HTML, GIF, CSS) in the same directory for each project. This means that the WebFOCUS Client and the WebFOCUS Reporting Server must use the same APPROOT directory on the same machine. For example:
C:\ibi\apps
Note: The release of WebFOCUS must be the same release number as App Studio.
App Studio can be installed on the same machine as WebFOCUS or on a separate machine. The requirements for a network installation of App Studio are the same as those of a non-networked installation. For more information on requirements, see Installing App Studio.
Note: You must provide a license for a network edition.
Since this machine will be accessed by multiple users over the network, you should use a machine that supports multiple connections and frequent network access.
Machines from which you run App Studio off the network should meet the following requirements:
Note: Due to a change in the compiler used to build App Studio, you may need to update the client machines with newer Microsoft Visual C++ libraries. Most machines have the required libraries. However, when running the Network version from a client machine, if your system does not have the required updates to allow this application to run, you will receive the following message when attempting to run AppStudioLaunch.exe:
This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect.
Reinstalling the application may fix the problem.To correct this issue, download and install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 R1 Redistributable Package (x86) from www.microsoft.com.
Install App Studio as explained in Installing App Studio. Be aware that when providing a network installation license, you will not have the option to install, or configure Tomcat or other supported configurations.
You must install using the proper license code for a network installation.
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To configure a network installation of App Studio, you must set up access to instances of WebFOCUS that are installed on your network. You do this by defining WebFOCUS environments.
The Environments List dialog box lets you define connections to WebFOCUS environments.
The Environments List dialog box shows all WebFOCUS environments that have been defined for App Studio. If you have previously defined a WebFOCUS environment, it will be shown here. Otherwise, only the localhost environment displays.
The WebFOCUS Environment Properties window opens, as shown in the following image.
If you wish to define additional WebFOCUS environments, click Add on the Environments List.
Note: The WebFOCUS Reporting Server in the WebFOCUS environment should not be the WebFOCUS Reporting Server installed as part of App Studio. The WebFOCUS Reporting Server installed as part of App Studio supports a very limited number of users (agents) at one time.
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For developers to run App Studio off the network, you must complete the following on the App Studio machine:
You must set up a network share before launching App Studio from another machine. If this is not practical for security reasons, then turn the AppStudio81 directory into a network share.
Note: If the share name is different from ibi, ensure that the new share name is used in the runfocshell.dat configuration file, as described in How to Configure the Network Settings.
To turn the ibi directory into a network share:
install_directory\ibi\AppStudionn\temp
where:
Is the directory in which App Studio is installed.
Is the App Studio release number.
Copy the WebFOCUS environment settings (wfscom.xml) into the AppStudio81\bin directory so they are available to remote App Studio users.
When you define WebFOCUS environments, settings are stored in the following location for Windows 7:
drive:\Users\user_id\AppData\Roaming\Information Builders\ wfscom.xml
where:
Is your Windows user ID.
Note: This file and directory may not be visible by default. To see this directory, open Windows Explorer, click Tools, choose Folder Options, and select the View tab. Then select Show hidden files and folders and click OK.
For remote machines to access the wfscom.xml file, you must copy it to a shared directory. The default location to use is:
drive:\ibi\AppStudio81\bin
When running App Studio off the network, a developer can use settings in this file or settings stored on the developer machine. The first time App Studio is run off the network, the settings in this file are used. When settings in this file are used, this wfscom.xml file is placed in the end user /Application Data/Information Builders/ directory on the remote machine each time App Studio is run off the network. If all developers use the settings in this file, they always see the same WebFOCUS environments.
Caution:
Settings for when App Studio is launched off the network are in the following file:
drive:\ibi\AppStudio81\bin\runfocshell.dat
You must edit this file before launching App Studio from another machine.
REGSTRING:LastUsedServer=Name to be supplied by Administrator
REGSTRING:LastUsedServer=WFEnvironment
You should have set up this environment, as explained in How to Define a WebFOCUS Environment.
WFSCOM:\\hostname\Ibi\AppStudio81\bin\wfscom.xml SHLPATH:\\hostname\Ibi\AppStudio81\bin
If the host name is incorrect or you changed the share name, update all lines where the host name appears.
Be aware that the WFSCOM value specifies where remote machines look for the wfscom.xml file. You can change the name and location of this file if needed, but the file name must end in.xml. The file specified is copied to a remote users /Application Data/Information Builders/ directory on the remote machine. The file name on the remote machine will always be wfscom.xml regardless of the file specified by the WFSCOM value.
Most of the settings in this file are created by the installation and should not be edited unless directed by Customer Support.
Caution: The DLL and OCX files listed in runfocshell.dat are loaded on remote machines when App Studio is loaded on those machines.
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An installation program is provided to create shortcuts to launch App Studio. Since no disk space is needed on the remote machine, this is referred to as a Zero-Footprint WebFOCUS App Studio deployment.
To install shortcuts, perform the following on machines from which you wish to run App Studio off the network:
\\hostname
where:
Is the host name or IP address of the machine where App Studio is installed.
You should see a list of shared directories including the ibi shared directory you created.
\\hostname\ibi\AppStudio81\Utilities\Local_setup
The installation wizard launches and a Welcome window opens.
You are prompted to create shortcuts.
Shortcuts are created.
Note: To remove the shortcuts from the remote machine, use the Add/Remove Programs option in the Windows Control Panel. The shortcuts appear as Zero-Footprint WebFOCUS App Studio. Be aware that this does not remove the registry settings or files described in Network App Studio Settings on Remote Machines.
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After installing the App Studio shortcuts, you can start App Studio off the network by selecting All Programs from the Start menu, and then Zero-Footprint WebFOCUS App Studio.
If the WebFOCUS Reporting Server runs with security OPSYS, you may be prompted to log on.
If you receive other errors, review the steps in Setting Up Access to the Network Installation and ensure that WFSCOM is defined correctly in runfocshell.dat.
The first time you launch App Studio on a remote machine, the wfscom.xml file is copied from the shared networked machine to the remote machine. The file is normally placed in the following location for Windows 7:
drive:\Users\user_id\AppData\Roaming\Information Builders\wfscom.xml
where:
Is your Windows user ID.
Other files are also created in this directory. This directory may not be visible by default. To see this directory, open Windows Explorer, click Tools, choose Folder Options, and click the View tab. Then select Show hidden files and folders and click OK.
When you launch App Studio on a remote machine, registry settings are created under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Information Builders
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Information Builders
In addition, DLL and OCX files listed in the \\hostname\ibi\AppStudio81\bin\runfocshell.dat file are loaded.
There are two ways to handle WebFOCUS environment settings when running App Studio off the network. Developers can use the common settings on the network or use settings specific to the developer machine.
With this option, whenever a developer launches App Studio, the wfscom.xml file on the network installation is copied to the developers machine from the following location.
\\hostname\ibi\AppStudio81\bin\wfscom.xml
where:
Is the host name or IP address of the machine where App Studio is installed.
This means all developers who launch App Studio from this network location use the same environment settings. It also means that any WebFOCUS environment settings that developers change on their machines will not appear the next time they launch App Studio.
With this option, the first time a developer launches App Studio, the wfscom.xml file is copied from the network to the machine of the developer. However, after App Studio is started on the developer machine, you can allow the developer to prevent the wfscom.xml file from being copied over in the future. By default, developers have the option to choose whether to copy over wfscom.xml or not.
On the machine of a developer, after App Studio has started:
This creates a registry setting on that machine that tells App Studio not to copy over wfscom.xml when App Studio is launched from the network.
You can control whether the Remote Update Server Environment from Network appears and whether wfscom.xml is automatically copied by editing the runfocshell.dat file. This file was introduced in How to Configure the Network Settings. The runfocshell.dat file specifies registry entries that great created on developer machines. The registry entries are created each time a developer launches App Studio off the network and will overwrite any previous entries.
By default, the following lines appear:
With these lines, wfscom.xml is copied and developers can choose whether or not to continue copying the file in the future.
You can choose not to show the option by changing the lines to:
With these lines, wfscom.xml is always copied and developers do not have the option to change this behavior.
You can add the following line if you want to force the copying of wfscom.xml regardless of what a developer has chosen in the past:
With these lines, wfscom.xml is always copied, even if a developer has chosen not to copy it in the past. This is a good way to force all developers to use a new version of wfscom.xml if you make a major change in the environment settings.
If you never want wfscom.xml to be copied from the network, use the following line:
With these lines, wfscom.xml is never copied and developers do not have the option to change this.
There are several ways to limit access to App Studio.
drive:\ibi\AppStudio81\bin\devstdpw.dat
By default, this file contains an asterisk (*) indicating that any user ID can run App Studio. If you wish to restrict which user IDs can run App Studio, remove the asterisk (*). Then specify each user ID that is allowed to run App Studio. Each user ID should be entered on a single line (one line per user ID). These are the user IDs used to log on to Windows. This file is case-sensitive. Do not enter the domain as part of your user ID.
For the network version of App Studio, the App Studio trace utility can be used to trace requests from a client PC. To accomplish this, copy the App Studio Communications Layer Trace utility, install_directory\AppStudio81\bin\wfscomtrace.exe, and the install_directory\AppStudio81\bin\focshell.dat file from the network PC to any location on the client PC. Run this utility prior to performing the task that is having issues and needs to be analyzed by Information Builders. From the trace utility, enable traces and specify the location of trace files. Save the trace file when done, turn traces off, and close the Communications Layer Trace utility.
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