Alternative Access to the OpenROAD Server
OpenROAD 2006 now gives you three other ways to access the OpenROAD Server, using:
• Java
• .NET
• HTTP
Java Access to the OpenROAD Server
The Java interface to the OpenROAD Server provides an easy way for programs written in Java to access 4GL business logic executed in an OpenROAD Server.
The Java interface facilitates the connectivity between Java and OpenROAD by providing an interface that is simple and integrated. It exposes a consistent external interface on all supported platforms.
.NET Access to the OpenROAD Server
The .NET interface to the OpenROAD Server provides an easy way for programs written in any .NET language to access 4GL business logic executed in an OpenROAD Server.
The .NET interface facilitates the connectivity between any .NET language and OpenROAD by providing an interface that is simple and integrated. It exposes a consistent external interface on the Windows platform.
HTTP Routing Support
The OpenROAD HTTP routing option lets you use HTTP as an alternative to DCOM when communicating with the OpenROAD server. When you specify http as the routing parameter in the RemoteServer Initiate method, that RemoteServer instance transforms its normal DCOM calls into HTTP messages and posts them to the HTTP URL specified in the location parameter.
This requires the web server application listening at that URL to be able to recognize those HTTP messages and to transform them back into DCOM calls to the OpenROAD Server, and then transform the DCOM responses into HTTP response messages.
This specialized web server application is named a gatekeeper because it serves two crucial functions:
• Message transformation—The gatekeeper application converts HTTP requests into DCOM calls, and converts DCOM return values into HTTP responses.
• Security—The gatekeeper application decides which clients are allowed to make calls, and which 4GL SCPs they are permitted to call.
The message transformation process is the same for all applications, and this release provides generic code that handles this. However, the security decisions are unique to each organization and each application, so this release provides only examples and a starting template. Developers must customize the gatekeeper application to meet the security requirements of their organization for each application.