Web Server

Web Server Setup - Linux

The following information is outdated. You will need to interpolate the information and use at your own discretion.

I ran into some problems installing and setting up the Omnis Server on the Linux box which I use for serving the Vencor web site. The problems were inflicted because I downloaded the RPM from omnis.net rather than installing from the CD supplied by Omnis Studio. The downloaded RPM didn't automatically copy the .so files from the rainingdata folder to /usr/lib folder.

Here are the steps I followed for installing the Omnis Web Server onto my Linux box.

1. Using a Linux web browser download the omnisserver.rpm file from Omnis Softwre.
2. Save the rpm file to the home directory.
3. Go to terminal mode.
4. Go to the home directory.
5. Switch to super user. Enter: su
6. Install the packger. Enter: rpm-i omnisserver.rpm
   
   This creates the necessary directories and puts the files in /usr/local/rainingdata/os321web. (321represents the Omnis version. This will vary depending on the version you are using.)
7. Copy the nhp-omniscgi file to the cgi-bin directory.
8. Go to the cgi-bin directory to make sure it exists. Enter: cd /var/www/cgi-bin
9. Make sure the nhp file exists. Enter: ls /usr/local/rainingdata/os321web/webserver
10. Copy the file to the cgi-bin directory.
    Enter: cp /usr/local/rainingdata/os321web/webserver/nhp-omniscgi nhp-omniscgi
11. Copy the .so files to the /usr/lib directory
12. Go to the os321web directory. Enter: cd /usr/local/rainingdata/os321web
13. List the .so files. Enter: ls *.so
14. Copy the .so files to usr/lib. Enter: cp *.so /usr/lib

All going well you should be able to startup the Omnis Studio server as follows:

Enter: /user/local/rainingdata/o321web/omnis &

The '&' ampersand spawns the task in the background.

The first time you run Omnis Studio you will need to serialize it.

In the Omnis Studio File menu > select Server Configuration... and set Server Port to 5912 (or whatever port you choose to have the Omnis Server listen on.)

Auto Restart Omnis Server and Open Omnis Libraries

You will likely want Omnis Studio to automatically startup and open your web server application so that if the web server computer is restarted, the Omnis server and your libraries will automatically be reopened.

One of the option for doing this is to add this to the rc.local file. Steps are as follows:

1. Go to the rc.d directory. Enter: cd /etc/rc.d
2. Edit the rc.local file. Enter: pico rc.local
3. Go to the end of the file and add the following text:
   /usr/local/rainingdata/os321web/omnis &
4. Exit the file and save changes. Enter: Ctrl+X

Web Server Setup - Mac OS X

Setting up personal web serving on Mac OS X is simple. The steps are as folllows:

1. Select System Preferences > click Sharing.
2. Services tab > check Personal Web Sharing.
   
   Your computer is now a web server. (Easy eh!?) The URL address for your computer's web sites are specified below the Services tab checklist.
3. Finder > Applications > Omnis Studio application folder > webclient folder > server folder.
4. Right-click on the nph-omniscgi file and select Copy.
5. Finder > Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables folder.
6. Right-click and select Paste to copy the nph-omniscgi file into the CGI-Executables folder.

Web Server Setup - WinXP

I installed IIS (Internet Information Services) on WinXP Pro from the Microsoft CD, however, the version which I got was IIS 5.1, which does not have the Web Service Extension option. It turns out I need IIS 6.0 or higher to get that option.

I tried to upgrade to IIS 6.0 but that failed. I decided to change course and install Apache for WinXP instead.

First I had to remove IIS 5 & 6

1. Start menu > Control Panel
2. Add or Remove Programs > Add/Remove Windows Components
3. Select Internet Information Services and follow the process.
4. WinXP crashed part way through the remove. I had to restart.
5. Running through the process a second time worked fine.

Web Server Testing

Sometimes I have trouble figuring out what is going wrong with my Omnis Web App and want to do a simple check to see if the Omnis Web App Server is up and running and listening on the specified port.

I created a tiny library called pingWebApp.lbs and a simple HTML page called pingwebapp.html which I use for testing communication between the web page, the web server, the Omnis Web App Server, and my Omnis Studio library. The files are available to Omnis Studio developers for free.

Here's the steps I recommend you follow for testing Omnis Web App Server communication.

Web Server Serialize

While testing the Omnis server you can use your single user web developer license serial number. Once you are ready to go live, you will need to purchase sufficient web client run-time license(s). If you are using the ultra-thin client you will be able to go a long way on a single Omnis Web App Server license. If f you are using remote forms you will need one license for each simulateous user.

After you receive the new serial number you will need to reserialize the Omnis server software. The simplest way to do this is to delete the omnis.cfg file located in the studio folder of your Omnis application.

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