APPX HTML Client 5.4.5

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

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.

Web Browser

The other option is to use the Web Browser's built in ability to handle files. With this option, the APPX Server Connector stores the file in the Mongo database, then passes a URL to the Web Browser. The Web Browser will either display the file in a new tab if it knows how process that file type, or offer to save the file if it does not know how to display it. This is a better choice if you are planning to deploy your applications on non Windows tablets or smartphones.

Installation - APPX Server Connector Component

The APPX 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 ports 3014/3015 (the default port) needs to be open between the server connector machine and your HTML clients.

Prerequisites

The server that will run the APPX Server Connector requires some additional software:

• The Mongo Database (https://www.mongodb.org/). Instructions for downloading and configuring the database can be found at https://docs.mongodb.org/manual/tutorial/

[root@localhost ~]# cd /opt/appxConnector
[root@localhost appxConnector]# 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.

Notice in this example the module 'string' is missing and the instructions on how to install it are displayed. If any modules are missing on your system, run the appropriate 'npm' command to install them, then re-run the install script. If all modules are present, the service will be created:

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:

Post Installation if upgrading an existing HTML client installation

• You have development, model and production installations of APPX all on the same server. In this case, you would install a matching server connector in 3 different folders and configure each one to use a different set of ports. When a new release is available, you could install it in the test folder without affecting the model or production versions.

Examples:

Local Connector or Web Browser Configuration

As mentioned above, you have a choice on how the HTML client should handle files sent to/from the browser.

• Windows: Once the download is complete, run the installer. The local connector will be installed, started and Windows will be configured to automatically start on a reboot. No further action is required.

• • • cd $HOME/AppxLocalConnector
    • sh ./start-nw.sh
  • The user has to manually start the local connector every time they log in, or they can add the script to their programs that start automatically when they log in. The steps vary by Linux distribution, consult your documentation.

@FULC

@FULC

Tunneling/Forwarding

• In /etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-proxy.conf, add (if not already loaded):
  
  LoadModule proxy_wstunnel_module modules/mod_proxy_wstunnel.so

• Create the /etc/httpd/conf.d/appx.conf file with the following lines (or just add these to httpd.conf):
  
  

  ProxyPass "/appxwss" "wss://localhost:3014"
  ProxyPassReverse "/appxwss" "wss://localhost:3014"
  ProxyPass "/appxws" "ws://localhost:3014"
  ProxyPassReverse "/appxws" "ws://localhost:3014"
  
  ProxyPass "/appxhttps" "https://localhost:3015"
  ProxyPassReverse "/appxhttps" "https://localhost:3015"
  ProxyPass "/appxhttp" "http://localhost:3015"
  ProxyPassReverse "/appxhttp" "http://localhost:3015"

• Restart your web server

• create sub folders for each of the different style sheets you want to use.

• Create a 'css' folder in each subfolder, and put each unique CUSTOM.css file in that folder

Troubleshooting

• If you have created your own login page based on 'client.html', make sure you update it with any changes to the standard 'client.html' when upgrading the HTML client.
• If the client login dialog box does not display, check your web server error logs for any error messages & correct as required.
• 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

• Check to make sure your Appx Server Connector is still running. If not, restart it.

• If you're having trouble with Remote connections, this page has some tips
• If the client seems to hang while loading images or tables, that its a very good indicator that MongoDB server has stopped. If MongoDB server needs to be started or restarted then make sure you restart the appxConnector service after MongoDB is running.