Setup and Installation

System Configuration

You can establish settings for iNomads system parameters such as timeouts, default template and admin password using Configuration Maintenance.

To invoke Configuration Maintenance, use one of the following methods:

Location

Method

From the PxPlus IDE Main Launcher

Expand the Web Deployment category and select iNomads Setup. From the iNomads Setup window, select the Config button.

From a Web browser

Launch iNomads from a Web browser. From the iNomads Application Launchpad window, invoke the iNomads Setup window by either clicking the Admin button or selecting admin from the Transaction drop box. Select the Config button.

From the PxPlus Command prompt

Invoke the iNomads Setup window by entering the following: RUN "*plus/inomads/admin". Select the Config button.

The following window is displayed:

The iNomads system parameters are presented in a series of eight tabs: General, Processes, Timeouts, Templates, Security, Compatibility, Pathnames and Misc. These parameters represent properties of the iNomads object and are listed in the tables below. These properties are set whenever the iNomads object is instantiated (%iNomads) but can also be set programmatically by referencing them directly.

Example:

%iNomads'Default_Txid$="admin"

The tables below describe the options found on each of the eight tabs. In each table, the first column displays the actual property name, and the second column displays the corresponding system parameter with any additional information.

General

Directory$

Default starting directory for sessions. If not specified then the directory defined for the web server will be used.

Language$

Default system language that will be used for any internal messages.

The language code will be appended to the file *msglib in order to locate the proper language specific messages.

Default_Txid$

Default transaction ID to use when launching without a TXID specification on the URL. Leave blank to force user to supply TXID.

'Default' will run the iNomads Application Launchpad.

Txid_Lookup$

Application sub-program that will be called to process the TXID and return the library and panel name to be processed.

Leave blank to have the system use the tx.conf file.

Show_Tasks

Don't run spawned tasks in background when launching directly on server (Windows only).

By default, spawned tasks will be in the background and thus unable to be directly debugged.

Select this option and the debug option below when developing on Windows.

Show_Debug

Enable debugging/tracing by issuing a 'SHOW' of the background window when launching a window.

Override_File$

Pathname to file which defines the control overrides to be applied.

This file allows you to externally hide, disable or otherwise edit specific controls (by name) throughout the system.

 

Processes

Launch_Ip$

Remote process launching IP address or server name.

If specified, instead of spawning the task from the HTTP server, the request is sent to this server.

Launch_Port$

Remote process launch port address. If not specified port 4093 is used.

If you want the system to only use the launch port for access, enable the Single_Port option (below).

Single_Port

(Available Only with Apache and EZWeb Server. Not Available with IIS.)

Only use the Remote process launch port (ignores Min/Max below).

Enable this option if you want the system to only use the launch port (see Launch_Port$ above) for access. When enabled, the system will ignore the Minimum/Maximum launcher ports (see Launch_Min_Port and Launch_Max_Port below).

(This option was added in PxPlus 2018.)

Launch_Pswd$

Remote process launch password. Used to assist in securing the launch port process.

Launch_Root$

Pathname to the Web root directory as seen from the remote process server.

This can contain either the pathname to a shared directory on the Web facing server or a base URL to the Web server (e.g. http://yourserver.ca, https://192.168.0.123).

See Running iNomads Application on a Separate Server.

Crypto_Seed$

Cryptographic seed value used to access Web root directory if not shared.

This value should be set to some random string to help assure security on access to iNomads directory on the Web server. Only used if Launch_Root$ is a URL.

This option is used when two servers are involved with iNomads - one is an Internet-facing Web server (usually running IIS or Apache), and the other, not accessible via the Internet, actually runs the application. The seed value is used to encrypt any control messages sent between the application server and the front-end server.

(This option was added in PxPlus 2020.)

Launch_Min_Port

Minimum port to use for Launcher. (Both Min/Max must be provided.)

This is the minimum port number that the Launcher will use to connect to the application server.

Launch_Max_Port

Maximum port to use for Launcher. (Both Min/Max must be provided.)

This is the maximum port number that the Launcher will use to connect to the application server.

 

Timeouts

Poll_Time

Poll time in minutes for each browser session to send message to host confirming activity.

Browser will send a dummy message to the server periodically based on this value.

Timeout

Idle time timeout in minutes after which the session will be automatically terminated if no activity (other than polls).

Maximum is 1440 minutes (1 day). Zero indicates no Idle time timeout.

Warn_time

Disconnect warning time in seconds. The number of seconds warning the user will be given before an inactivity disconnect.

Maximum of 300 (5 min). If zero, no warning will be issued.

Reconnect_Time

Reconnect time in minutes. How long a task will be kept alive after polls stop being received.

Maximum is 1440 minutes (1 day). Zero indicates drop task immediately after missed poll.

Tcp_Timeout

Internal network timeout in seconds for messages sent from server to application.

Default is 300 (5 min). Maximum is 36000 (ten hours). If zero, no timeout will be set.

 

Templates

Std_Template$

System template to be used on panels that don't specify a specific template.

Template names are case insensitive and will refer to sub-directories within the *plus/inomads/templates directory.

Cache_Template$

Enable caching of templates. For debugging purposes it is desirable not to have the system cache the 'xxx.tpl' files.

This should be enabled in a production system to improve performance.

 

Security

Admin_Pswd$

Password to administration functions within the system.

Get_File_Popup$

Do you want the GET_FILE_BOX to have popup menus enabled that allow for file creation, deletion or renaming?

For security on an open system, the suggestion is to set this to No.

Get_Dir_Tbl$

List of directories that GET_FILE_BOX will allow access to.

Each entry in this list should be separated by a comma or semi-colon.

If empty, then GET_FILE_BOX is unrestricted (not recommended on an open system).

No_Dumps

Disable to creation of DUMPs when an error occurs.

Forcelogon

Force Signon for all transactions regardless of TXID settings.

If set, users are prompted to sign on based on a security file in the default directory; otherwise, security will only be requested for transactions that request it.

Inid_Lock

Lock session to specific browser once started.

If set, the session cannot be switched to another browser for debug or recover purposes.

Failed_Logon_Tries

Number of failed logon attempts before locking out browser.

Enter the number of failed logon attempts allowed before the browser will be locked out. The lockout is done based on the browser INID. (Default: 5)

(This option was added in PxPlus 2020.)

Failed_Logon_Delay

How long (minutes) to lockout browser after failed logon.

Enter the number of minutes to lock out the user after a failed logon attempt. (Default: 10)

(This option was added in PxPlus 2020.)

Failed_Logon_Log

Log file to record invalid signon attempts.

Pathname of a log file to record invalid logon attempts. If left empty/blank, invalid logon attempts will not be logged.

(This option was added in PxPlus 2020.)

 

Compatibility

Wdx_Err_Ignore$

WindX error suppression enabled?

When running using WindX, often errors are ignored under turbo mode. Setting this option will allow iNomads to ignore many errors.

Wdx_Call_Prog$

Program to call whenever the system detects a "[WDX]" or "[LCL]" prefix on a CALL directive.

If left blank, the CALL will be logged and simply return.

Web_Url_Map$

"Shell.explorer" mappings. Comma separated entries defining replacement text for URLs passed to the shell explorer emulation.

Each entry should be formatted as: old_string_text=new_string_text,…

Tbl_Emul

Emulate the creation of standard NOMADS Name, Class, and Type tables.

Fldr_Autoclose

Enable "Auto-Close" option on folders. (Not available in NOMADS). 

 

Pathnames

Pxplus_Exec$

Pathname to PxPlus executable.

This pathname is needed when running IIS ASP.NET or the Apache LoadModule.

Pxplus_Lib$

System library directory.

This pathname is needed when running IIS ASP.NET or the Apache LoadModule. If omitted, the same directory as PXPLUS_EXEC will be used.

Syshtml_Dir$

Relative URL location of system HTML files. If blank, then /syshtml will be used.

You can override where the system gets the internal HTML files from in order to change the formatting/text. The value must point to the relative URL directory containing the files.

Image_Map_File$

Pathname to file used to map program supplied image paths to URLs.

You can provide a keyed file to be checked whenever an image is requested. If a record exists with the key for the requested image, the record contents will be used as URL.

 

Misc

Calendar_2Dig_Yr

Two-digit year conversion range. If zero, force current century else max years in future that a two-digit year will allow before using date in the past.

The default is 20, meaning if a 2-digit year is provided that exceeds 20 years into the future, the year will be considered in the past.

Allow_User_Input$

URL tag that must be present in order to enable any command/console input.

If this is non-blank, its value must be present on the launching URL in order to allow the application to break out to console mode or request user input. Setting helps avoid hung sessions waiting for user input.

Character_Set$

Character set to use on Web pages.

Character_Set_Int$

Character set to use internally in application.

F4_Close

Enable F4 to close panels.