Running APPX on Windows from a hand held device via a Linux Terminal Server

This document will demonstrate how you can run APPX on Windows in character mode when your front end device is a hand held (such as a hand held warehouse RF scanner or time clock).

Overview

If you have a hand held device that needs to run an APPX application and your APPX server is Linux or Unix based, you can simply use the built in telnet program on the device to connect to APPX (most devices include a telnet client). However, if your APPX server is running on Windows, this is not an option. This document describes how you can use a Linux server as a proxy to provide a telnet interface to your APPX for Windows server.

Alternatively, APPX Release 5.4 and higher includes a browser based client that runs on most devices. See the APPX HTML Client on the Desktop Downloads page.

Required software components

Linux server with SSH or Telnet server accepting logins.

You need to install and configure a Linux server. Almost any version of Linux will suffice. It can be running on a virtual machine.

Device that you are trying to access APPX from (such as hand held warehouse scanner)

You will need the actual device as you need to map the keyboard in APPX.

Steps

Place the appx for linux application on the Linux server.

Install the latest version of APPX for Linux from the Server Download page. We only need the APPX engine, extract it and set the permissions with following command:

[root@linuxserver /]# tar xzf exec_lin.tgz appx
[root@linuxserver /]# chmod 775 appx

Create Keymap

Remote in via SSH or Telnet from the device to the Linux server, then do the following:

[joe@linuxserver /]$ export APPX_UID="appx:secret" 
[joe@linuxserver /]$  export APPX_DATA_SERVER="appxserver.example.com:8060"
[joe@linuxserver /]$  ./appx -k -m=JOEJOE
                   ***  APPX Keyboard Definition Utility  ***


Terminal Type: JOEJOE
APPX User ID :
This program will ask you to identify 27 special keys on
your keyboard, plus 10 number keys.

After it has been defined, BACKSPACE can be used to back up
in the list of requested keys so they can be redefined.
Except when defining it, the END key allows you to exit the
program leaving the current APPX keymap file unchanged.


Do you wish to Continue? (Y or N)  

APPX_UID is made up of a user name followed by a colon and the the password for a user that can successfully log into APPX on the Windows server. APPX_DATA_SERVER is made up of the resolvable hostname or IP address of the APPX Windows server following by a colon and the TCP port number of the running and configured APPX Login Manager.