Creating the user interface
One of the main differences between a distributed server application
and a traditional PowerBuilder application is that a server application
requires minimal user interaction. In a distributed environment,
most of the user interaction takes place in the client application.
Typically, a server application provides a simple interface for
starting and stopping the listener and for monitoring client connections.
Server must open a window
To listen for client connections, a server application must
have at least one window open. If you create the Transport object
and invoke the Listen function in the application Open event, but
do not do anything else, the server application will terminate when
the Open event script finishes executing.
Creating a console interface
In
addition to the interface for activating the listener, a server
application can also provide a console interface. The console interface
for a server application can monitor system activity, providing
the system administrator with information about client connections
made to the server.
The user interface of the console need not be application-specific.
That is, the same console interface may be appropriate for multiple
server applications. In this case, you can create a generic console
interface to monitor activity against all of your servers.
Monitoring activity from a server
The ConnectionInfo
object provides access to information about client connections to
a server application. To retrieve information about client connections,
a server application must establish a client connection to itself.
A server application cannot access the ConnectionInfo object directly.
Disconnecting clients
In addition to allowing the
system administrator to monitor activity against a server, the console
interface can be used to terminate client connections that are creating
unnecessary traffic on the server.
For more information
For more information about using the ConnectionInfo object
to monitor client connections, see “Monitoring activity against
a server “, and the PowerScript
Reference
.