Application Development

Before delivering an application to its users, you need to package it for delivery. There are some basic constructions to remember that will make packaging your application more modular. This chapter describes general information about:

• The steps to be completed for deployment.

• Which files are needed for distribution.

• What customizations you can make.

The list of files that you must include in a distribution varies depending on the application's components and the platform or platforms on which it runs. In addition, there are variations in distribution depending on your application's architecture. The documentation includes checklists for the major architectures:

• Two-tier applications—See Appendix D, "Deployment Checklist for Two-tier Applications," in this manual.

• JetNet and Oracle Tuxedo applications—See Appendix E, "Application Setup Checklist," in the JetNet/Oracle Tuxedo Guide.

Basic Deployment Steps

1. Create application executables (refer to page 42-1).
2. Make sure all binary files—screens, JPL modules, menu bars/toolbars—used by your application are stored in libraries (refer to page A-14 for details on using the formlib).

   Your Panther application consists of at least one to three Panther libraries, depending on the application's architecture: a library for storing the objects that define the user interface (client.lib); a library for storing the objects required by application servers (server.lib); and, for JetNet/Oracle Tuxedo, a common library (common.lib) for the objects that are needed by both client and server.

   If, however, the components are to be made memory-resident, extract the desired components from their respective libraries before building your executables.

3. Make sure all graphical elements referenced, via property settings, by your Panther screens, such as pixmaps and icons, are included in a client library.

   For web applications, alternatively, you can place your graphics files in the htdocs directory on your HTTP server and set the ImageDir variable in the web initialization file to point to that location.

4. When the libraries are complete, use formlib -o to lock the libraries. This step is irreversible. (After locking the library, you must use formlib -x to extract the contents and formlib -c to create a new library for editing or formlib -m to condense and unlock the library).
5. Create an application directory and copy all of the required files, libraries, and subdirectories to this directory.
6. Make sure the environment variables SMBASE, SMVARS, SMTERM are set correctly:

• UNIX:

  • SMBASE should point to your application directory (for example, setenv SMBASE /usr/myapp).

  • SMVARS should point to smvars.bin in your config subdirectory of your application directory (for example, setenv SMVARS /usr/myapp/ config/smvars.bin).

  • SMTERM should define the platform (for example, setenv SMTERM X).

• Windows:

  • Set SMVARS to point to smvars.bin in the config subdirectory of your application directory. The variables can be defined in your application's initialization file (prol5w32.ini) or in autoexec.bat.

  • (Optional) Set SMPATH to point to other application directories.

  • (Optional) Set the directory for your application's startup icon to the application directory.

    Note: Remember to run var2bin if you edit the smvars file. Then include the newly compiled smvars.bin in your distribution.

7. Make sure the appropriate libraries are open on startup of your application, set the SMFLIBS variable (in smvars or in the initialization file for clients).

   On Windows, libraries are delineated with a ; or |.

   On UNIX, libraries are delineated with a : or a |.

8. JetNet/Oracle Tuxedo:

   • Create or copy the JetNet configuration file (refer to the JetNet Guide/Oracle Tuxedo Guide for details). For Oracle Tuxedo applications, create or copy your Oracle Tuxedo configuration file.

   • Make sure connections to the middleware are defined in the setup variables SMRBCONFIG on local UNIX clients and SMRBHOST and SMRBPORT on Windows and remote clients.

   • Make sure the appropriate libraries are open on startup for the servers in proserv.env, progserv.env, and machine.env using SMFLIBS.

9. COM/DCOM/MTS:

   • For COM: on each application client, copy the DLLs (and type libraries) to the application directory and register the COM component.

   • For DCOM: on the machine that is the COM component server, copy the DLLs (and type libraries) to the application directory and register the COM component. On the application clients, run the client registration file.

   • For MTS: on the server running MTS, copy the DLLs (and type libraries) to the application directory and install the COM components in the Microsoft Management Console. Create an export file for each component package and have the application clients run that file.

10. Then run your application's executable.
11. Test the application.
12. And ship it!

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Required Files

All Panther applications require the following files:

• Panther executables (refer to page 42-2 for details on creating your application's executables).

• Library or libraries containing application components that define the user interface. client.lib is the suggested name, but another common practice is to create libraries based on their content, such as images.lib for graphics files.

• Panther library (prorun5.lib) containing all screens and JPL used by Panther.

• The following files placed in one of the application libraries:

  • Panther message file (msgfile.bin).

  • Keyboard files for the platforms on which your application will run; for example, if your Panther application runs on xterm, copy xterm keys.bin to your distribution directory.

  • Configuration map file for the desired platform; for example, copy wincmap.bin for Windows or xwincmap.bin for Motif.

  • Character-mode platforms need the video files for the platforms on which your application will run.

• Motif resource files, for example, the Prolifics resource file.

• Windows-specific initialization files, for example, prol5w32.ini.

• Windows-specific Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs). All *.dll files in the distributed util directory except for dtext.dll, cgmzv.dll, and ctl3d.dll which are only used by the online help system.

• Setup information in the form of smvars.bin, or specified in the system's initialization file.

• JetNet and Oracle Tuxedo applications also require the following files:

  • JetNet shared libraries for UNIX (for example, lib/*.so.* on Sun).

  • JetNet administrative executables. All files in the distributed bin directory.

  • The contents of the distributed locale and udataobj directories.

  • Panther utilities (for example, jetman, rbboot, rbshutdown).

  • JetMan resource file for Motif (Jetman) or initialization file for Windows (jetman.ini).

  • Library (common.lib) containing application components used by the client and server for JetNet and Oracle Tuxedo applications.

  • Library (server.lib) or libraries containing service components and service-related objects that define the server.

  • Environment definition files* for application servers (*.env files)

• COM/MTS applications also require the following files in the application directory:

  • Panther DLLs for the COM component server.

  • For each service component, a DLL (.dll).

Optional Files

The following files are optional, depending on your application's components, requirements, and how it is configured:

• Graph requirements. If your application displays or uses business graphs and charts, include grafcap, symbold, and symbols1 in your distribution. Include any graph-specific font files that are used in your application (for example, aldine.fnt, centry.fnt, duplex.fnt from the distributed config directory).

  You also need the following platform-specific files:

  • Under UNIX: the executables, gdsp and swsdrvr.

  • Under Windows: libsti.ini (belongs in the Windows directory), libsti32/64.dll (copy to your application directory).

• LDB screens. If you have any LDB screens that are used for data transfer or initialization (usually named ldb.scr), include them in the appropriate library.

• Message file. If you have stored messages in message files, they need to be in binary format and copied to the appropriate library.

• Graphics files. Images that are defined as pixmap properties to display on buttons and screens in your application. Include these in the client library, and for web applications, in the htdocs directory.

• ActiveX controls (for Windows and Web applications). ActiveX controls in Web applications should be digitally signed and used in accordance with the control's licensing scheme. Since Windows applications will not be deployed on a Web browser, it is not necessary to digitally sign the control; however, your application's installation program should install your ActiveX control and register the control on the user's system.

Specifying Files and Directories

For the client portion of your application, you can use the smvars file to specify all the libraries and directories that Panther needs to run. The only variables that must be set by the user would be SMTERM and SMVARS, which tell Panther which binary configuration files to use and where to find the application's files. Refer to page 2-1 in the Configuration Guide for more information about setting up the system environment.

Alternatively, your application can specify required files through calls to Panther functions:

• sm_keyinit initializes the key translation file from the specified key file.

• sm_vinit initializes the video translation file from the specified video file.

• sm_soption supplies the search path for Panther binaries.

• sm_msg_read reads a message file into memory.

• sm_l_open opens a Panther library.

Detailed information on each function and their variants is available in the Programming Guide.

Customizing the Distribution

This section describes additional measures you can take when you package your application. To ensure that these changes take effect, it is best to build your executable after customizing the appropriate files.

Configuration Support

For JetNet/Oracle Tuxedo applications, if you are administering the setup of your deployed application, you can provide a middleware configuration file that is similar to the one built when the application was being developed. If the application is being setup by your customer, you can provide documentation for using the JetNet manager and/or scripts for defining the number of client workstations, the number of machines, and the number of application servers that will be used to run your application.

Specifying a Startup File

When your application starts up it uses an initialization file (prol5w32.ini or prol5w64.ini) under Windows and a resource file (Prolifics) under Motif. For Motif, instead of using the distributed files, you can change the name to reflect your application's name and specify the file in piinit.c (found in the link directory). To include the name of your resource file, for example:

sm_pi_xm__setup("myAppSetup");

For Windows, you can specify the name of the ini file on the Start Menu command line. For example, the PlayMusic application would place PlayMusic.ini in the Windows directory and call that ini file with the following command setting:

C:\Prolifics\Panther\prorun.exe -ini PlayMusic

You can design your own splash screen, just like the one that displays when you startup the screen editor, that will display when your application is initialized. The screen can be a BMP, JPEG, or GIF format. You specify the name of the screen in your startup file:

• For Motif: In your resource file (Prolifics), add the line:

  Prolifics*introPixmap:  "titleScreen.ext"

• For Windows: In your initialization file (prol5w32.ini), include the name on the line:

  IntroPixmap="titleScreen.ext"

Specifying Your Own Icon

When you minimize your application in Windows, the default Panther icon is used. You can replace the default icon with one of your own. Edit the prorun.rc file located in the link directory to include the name of your .ico file, for example:

#define ICONFILE myIcon.ico