View All Site Content
Categories
There are no items in this list.
Other Blogs
There are no items in this list.
Links
Photos
Archive
Archive (Calendar)

June 30
Using Apache with Windows to serve Flynet Generated Web Services 
by  105794-\lewis.hunter  on 30/06/2010 15:23

FeatherBy default, Flynet Designer for Web Services creates a virtual folder for the generated web service in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). We have had several organisations ask us if it was possible to run the web services in something else.

The Flynet generated web services are written for ASP.NET, and therefore need the Microsoft .NET Framework to run. It is possible to use Apache web server to host ASP.NET web services using the Apache mod-aspdotnet for Apache servers running on Windows.

People have asked us if the web services could run on alternative platforms such as Linux with the help of Mono, the cross platform, open source .NET development framework. Along with the generated web service, you need the Flynet CAL Manager to manage concurrent access. This runs as a Windows service, and we have not investigated whether this is possible or not. Perhaps this is an article for the future?Box

You can generate a Flynet Web Service without having Microsoft IIS installed by deselecting the ‘Register Web Service with IIS’ option in the ‘Web Service’ tab of the Flynet Designer for Web Services.

We assume that you have already downloaded, installed and configured the Apache web server successfully. You then need to download and install mod-aspdotnet.

The Apache httpd.conf file needs modifying to serve the Flynet generated web services. In this example, we assume that you have generated your Flynet web service to C:/Test/WebSites/TestWebService and that we shall be registering it in Apache to that it appears as http://<machinename>/TestWebService. Also, in Apache, note that folders are separated with a forward slash (UNIX style), rather than Windows backwards slash.

 

Apache httpd.conf

<IfModule mod_aspdotnet.cpp>

# Mount the Web Service application

       AspNetMount /TestWebService "C:/Test/WebSites/TestWebService"

 

# Map all requests for /TestWebService to the Web Service application files

       Alias /TestWebService "C:/Test/WebSites/TestWebService"

 

# Allow asp.net scripts to be executed in the Web Service application

       <Directory "C:/Test/WebSites/TestWebService">

 

       Options FollowSymlinks ExecCGI

       Order allow,deny

       Allow from all

       DirectoryIndex Default.htm Default.aspx

       </Directory>

 

# For all virtual ASP.NET webs, we need the aspnet_client files

# to serve the client-side helper scripts.

       AliasMatch /aspnet_client/system_web/(\d+)_(\d+)_(\d+)_(\d+)/(.*) \

       "C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v$1.$2.$3/ASP.NETClientFiles/$4"

       

 <Directory \

       "C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v*/ASP.NETClientFiles">

       Options FollowSymlinks

       Order allow,deny

       Allow from all

       </Directory>

</IfModule>

Permanent Link to Post | Email Post Link | Number of Comments 0 Comment(s)
June 30
What’s new in Flynet Designer for Web Services? 
by  105794-\lewis.hunter  on 30/06/2010 15:12

The Flynet Designer for Web Services has been known for many years as the Flynet Web Service Generator for Databases. With the introduction of our new product lines, names have been altered a little, along with the addition of new features. A blog entry should appear soon in the User Blog that explains all the new naming.

The Flynet Designer for Web Services (DWS) is even easier to use and also has added functionality which we hope you find useful. Not least the ability to do OLAP Cube and Pivot Tables which brings a whole new dimension to web service connectivity. I have outlined below some benefits.

  • Allow table.column dot notation in query parameters and connection strings – without the need for tilde (~) aliasing.
  • Prefix Query, Connection and web Service name – switchable auto prefix option – to prevent illegal name problems.
  • Replace Spaces with underscores in Query, Connection and web service names – to prevent illegal item names.
  • Escape special characters in item names using word replacement – to overcome illegal character in variable name problems.
  • Tidy up item name checking on dialog closing for queries and connections to make it more user-friendly.
  • Add support for ODBC/OLEDB parameterisation – using ‘?' or ‘?parameterName' notation – to avoid SQL injection risk.
  • Add support for MDX queries for OLAP data cubes, with switchable RowName columns – to contain outputs from “On Rows” clause.
  • Added interpretation capabilities for MDX queries (OLAP cubes) – finds output parameters in “On Columns” clause.
  • Modified Microsoft Analysis Services data source connection type to work with standard connection parameters, for Data Cubes.
  • Simplified interpretation for aliased column names, now Tildes (~) are unnecessary for the most part – this allows queries to be pasted into DWS with less need for modification.
  • Improved parameter interpretation now allows DWS to function more effectively with spread sheet pivot table data sources in Excel.
  • Automatic output parameter fetching for stored procedures, on pressing the “Test” button in the query editor.
  • Built-in backward compatibility with previous project files, to allow them to be updated with these new capabilities.
  • Backward compatibility with previous queries for selects and stored procedure execution.
  • Double clicking on query names in the query grid will now open the query editor.
  • Double clicking on data source names in the data source grid will now open the data source editor.
Permanent Link to Post | Email Post Link | Number of Comments 0 Comment(s)
June 30
Welcome to the Flynet Development Blog 
by  105794-\adminNo presence information  on 30/06/2010 12:42

Hello and welcome to the Flynet Development Blog. This blog is to bring you an insight into the inner depths of Flynet’s development team. Find out what is coming in new versions of Flynet software, help shape where we go next and learn how to work with Flynet software in the more technically complex environment.

Generally it will be members of the Flynet development team that write these entries, but we will be inviting along special guest bloggers to add their insights.

Permanent Link to Post | Email Post Link | Number of Comments 0 Comment(s)