WindX
Launching WindX from a browser  
   
Browser Launching One important feature of the Client Server interfaces is the ability to allow WindX to be initiated directly from a browser. This feature allows you to create web pages that can directly launch a client connection to a host system.

To accomplish this there are a few entries thatr need to be added into the Client Windows Registry. These Registry entries enable the automatic launching of a client connection in response to initiating an URL request whose prefix is "windx://".

The general format of the URL request is:

windx:// server / port# / prog args

If the server is running the Application server:

windx:// APS: server : port# / prog args

If the server is running the PxPlus Simple Client Server:

windx:// server :scs / port# / prog args

Where:

server IP address/name of the server running the host program.
port# Port address being monitored by the above.
prog args Name of the program to run and any associated arguments replacing all spaces with + or %20.

Example:

windx://myhost/10000/*winstar+-arg+order+pizza/pizza.en
windx://myhost/10000/*winstar%20-arg%20order%20pizza/pizza.en

Note: The URL must adhere to normal URL encoding rules and not contain spaces. Insert plus signs or %20 in lieu of spaces between or within any parameters in the URL.

Optionally, when using the nthost or Simple CS server, the port# can have a suffix of ";Show" appended to it. This will cause the main window to be displayed as opposed to minimized when the application launches. Normally you will use this option when you want to run a simple text style application that will run from the main window.

In order to provide backward compatibility where web pages may not have a type specification, the system will first try *nthost but is able to detect and switch to either a Simple CS or Application Server interface depending on the host service provided.
Registry Entries The Windows registry entries required to make this work are as follows:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\windx
  <default> = "URL:windx"
EditFlags = hex: 02,00,00,00,00
URL Protocol = ""

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\windx\shell
  <default> = ""

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\windx\shell\open
  <default> = <none>

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\windx\shell\open\command
  <default> = "c:\\pxplus\\pxplus.exe -MN *url -arg %1"
The pathname here will be adjusted to point to the proper EXE on the client machine.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\URL\Prefixes
  windx. = "windx://"
There really is a dot ( '.' ) following 'windx' in the above registry entry.
* Note * The normal Windows installation process will automatically add all the required registry entries needed to service the windx:// requests.