Difference: AppxHTMLClient543 (9 vs. 10)

Revision 102016-03-10 - JeanNeron

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APPX HTML Client 5.4.3/5.4.4

This page gives installation instructions and an overview of the Appx HTML client.

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Overview

The Appx HTML client is designed to allow you to connect to an Appx server and run Appx applications using a browser, either on the desktop, a tablet or a smartphone. When running the client in a browser, no software is required on the desktop, tablet or smart phone. When the user logs on, the necessary code is downloaded to their device as required.

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 The client will support SSL connections if your web server is configured appropriately. If not, the client will use its own built in AES encryption but be aware that this is not sufficient to protect sensitive data.

The Appx HTML client consists of two modules:

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  • Web Server Files (webhost.zip). These are the javascript libraries and style sheets that make up the HTML client. These must be installed in your web server's document directory. These files are platform independent.
  • APPX Server connector (serverConnector.zip). This is a small javascript library that connects the client running in your browser to the actual Appx engine. The Appx Server Connector is platform specific, you will need the one that matches the O/S under which your web server is running.
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  • Web Server Files (webhost.zip). These are the javascript libraries and style sheets that make up the HTML client. This also contains the Local Connector for Windows, Mac and Linux clients. These must be installed in your web server's document directory.
  • APPX Server connector (serverConnector.zip). This is a javascript library that connects the client running in your browser to the actual Appx engine. In releases prior to 5.4.4 the Appx Server Connector is platform specific, you will need the one that matches the O/S under which your web server is running. After Release 5.4.4 it is platform independant.
 Note that Appx does not have to be running on the same server as your web server, and the APPX Server Connector does not have be on the same server as either Appx or your web server. This gives you maximum flexibility in configuring your installation.

Once the HTML client is working, you can connect to any Appx 5.4+ server, just as you can with the Appx Desktop Client. Due to the engine changes that were made in 5.4 to support the HTML client, you cannot connect to an earlier Appx engine.

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 If you are going to run the APPX Server Connector on a Windows server, make sure all patches have been applied. In particular, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2731284 will break tables if it is not applied

We have tested the HTML client on current versions of IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

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Installation

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Installation - Web Server Component

  1) Extract the Web Server File (webhost.zip) into the document folder for your web server. Depending on your web site layout, you may want to put this in its own folder within the web server documents, i.e., /var/www/html/appx.
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  Change HOSTNAME to the name or IP address of the server running the Appx Server Connector. Do not use localhost.
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<		3) Install the 'nodejs' package from https://nodejs.org/ if it is not already installed on your server. For rpm based Linux systems, you can install it via (as root):
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Installation - Server Connector Component

 
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<		curl --silent --location https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup | bash -
yum install nodejs
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>		The Server Connector is the software that connects the HTML clients and the APPX server. This can be installed on the same server as the web server, or the APPX Server, or a completely different machine. If you are not using tunnneling via the web server, then port 3014 (the default port) needs to be open between the server connector machine and your HTML clients.

Prerequisites

 
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<		To install on Windows, go to https://nodejs.org and download the Windows installer (msi) file and simply run the installer.
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>		All releases of the Server Connector require the 'nodejs' package from https://nodejs.org/ if it is not already installed on your server. For rpm based Linux systems, you can install it via (as root):
 
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<		4) Extract the Appx Server Connector to a location of your choice. This is the software that will connect your browser client to the Appx Login Manager. A folder in the /opt directory would be a good choice on a Linux server. Once the software is extracted, run the appxConnector-install.js script. This should be run as 'root' on Linux/Unix systems, and as an Administrator on Windows systems. This will check your system for the required modules. To run the script, open a terminal or DOS window and navigate to the folder where you installed the Appx Server Connector, then invoke the script via 'node':
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>		curl --silent --location https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup | bash -yum install nodejs


To install on Windows, go to https://nodejs.org and download the Windows installer (msi) file and simply run the installer.

As of Release 5.4.4 the Server Connector also requires the MongoDB Database for caching images and other items. The software can be downloaded from https://www.mongodb.org/downloads. You must also configure the server, following the instructions at https://docs.mongodb.org/manual/tutorial/install-mongodb-on-windows/.

1) Extract the Appx Server Connector to a location of your choice. A folder in the /opt directory would be a good choice on a Linux server. Once the software is extracted, run the appxConnector-install.js script. This should be run as 'root' on Linux/Unix systems, and as an Administrator on Windows systems. This will check your system for the required modules. To run the script, open a terminal or DOS window and navigate to the folder where you installed the Appx Server Connector, then invoke the script via 'node':

  
[root@localhost ~]# cd /opt/appxConnector543
[root@localhost appxConnector543]# node appxConnector-install.js  
Checking for required modules... 
Module: crypto          - Installed. 
Module: fs                 - Installed. 
Module: hexy            - Installed.
Module: http             - Installed. 
Module: https           - Installed. 
Module: mongodb     - Installed. 
Module: net              - Installed. 
Module: node-cryptojs-aes    - Installed. 
Module: string          - Missing, please run 'npm install string' to install. 
Module: string_decoder      - Installed. 
Module: url           - Installed. 
Module: ws            - Installed. 

Missing modules. Please install required modules and run again.
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[root@localhost appxConnector543]# node appxConnector-install.js  
Checking for required modules... 
Module: crypto          - Installed. 
Module: fs            - Installed. 
Module: hexy           - Installed. 
Module: http           - Installed. 
Module: https          - Installed. 
Module: mongodb         - Installed. 
Module: net           - Installed. 
Module: node-cryptojs-aes    - Installed. 
Module: string          - Installed. 
Module: string_decoder      - Installed. 
Module: url           - Installed. 
Module: ws            - Installed. 

Installing appxconnector service... 
Using default mode: systemd Installing service on /etc/systemd/system/appxconnector.service 
Already installed, restarting appxconnector service... 
Running systemctl start appxconnector... 
Done
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<		5) Confirm the service is running. In Linux/Unix you can use 'ps -ef|grep appxConnector.js', and in Windows you can use the 'Services' control panel.
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>		2) Confirm the service is running. In Linux/Unix you can use 'ps -ef|grep appxConnector.js', and in Windows you can use the 'Services' control panel.
  Assuming the web server to which we installed the client is 192.168.0.15, and that we installed everything into an 'appx' folder on the web server, then we should be able to get a client login dialog box via:

http://192.168.0.15/appx/client.html

You must open port 3014 on your web server for this connection to work. If you do not want to open any new ports on your web server, see the section on 'Tunneling/Forwarding'.

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LocalConnector

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LocalConnector

  As mentioned above, you can suppress the requirement for the LocalConnector by changing the following line in "client.html":
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  • If you are getting "[proxy:error] [pid xxxx] (13)Permission denied:" errors, you might have a selinux security issue that prevents apache from initiating any outgoing network connections to the web socket server port. In that case, try the following command:
    # setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1
  • Some browsers (like IE) will not run the client successfully if you double click the 'client.html' file. You should always access the web page via http://servername/client.html, even if the page is installed on your local system.
  • Check to make sure your Appx Server Connector is still running. If not, restart it.
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  • If you can't display table data inside a browser and you are running Windows Server 2008R2, you might try installing this HOTFIX from Microsoft. Windows 2008R2 servers without that HOTFIX will sometimes zero-out the MongoDB data. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2731284
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  • If you can't display table data inside a browser and you are running Windows Server 2008R2, you might try installing this HOTFIX from Microsoft. Windows 2008R2 servers without that HOTFIX will sometimes zero-out the MongoDB data. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2731284
 
  • If you're having trouble with Remote connections, this page has some tips

Comments

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 Read what other users have said about this page or add your own comments.
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  -- JeanNeron - 2015-12-18
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