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Web Application Server in 19.0

Overview

  • The DataFlex 2017/19.0 WebApp Server now includes binaries for 64-bit deployment.
  • The WebApp Administrator program now allows applications to be configured to run on other than the Windows Server default web site.
  • DFManageVDir provides a new command line interface for managing Web Applications.

This enhancement simplifies DataFlex WebApp Server installation, configuration, and deployment, and removes the requirement to switch Windows Internet Information Server (IIS) to 32-bit mode. This is accomplished by providing both 32-bit and 64-bit binaries of parts of the WebApp Server. The DataFlex application processes and the WebAppServer.exe controlling them are still 32-bit.

The additional server binaries are located in the Bin64 folder, and the updated ISAPI handler is automatically registered during installation so that IIS 7 will automatically pick the right DataFlex version (IIS before version 7 required manual configuration). After switching to 64-bit, any COM controls or components being called through IIS/ASP must also be 64-bit (this does not apply to controls or components being called by the 32-bit DataFlex processes).

These DataFlex WebApp Server changes remove the need to install the IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility or to enable 32-bit support in the Application Pool (assuming that you are able to solely use 64-bit).

Additional Features

  • Allows more control over which website is used.

Other Notes

  • The 'Default Website' is selected, but other websites are fully selectable.
  • The tab order of the 'Please select a web server share' screen has been improved.
  • Fixed a bug changing the entered name if it matched the first part of a longer name ('WebO' automatically becomes 'WebOrder_19') (BT: 7231).

Command Line Interface

While many developers use the Web Application Administrator to manage their web applications, it is often desirable to automate the process via the command line interface. In DataFlex 19.0, DFManageVDir.exe replaces WinCrtVDir.exe.

The command line interface is used during installation and called from the Studio and Administrator (via DFManageIIS.dll).

Examples - Create or Remove Virtual Directories

DFManageVDir.exe create "{website}" "WebOrder_19" "C:\DataFlex 19.0 Examples\WebOrder\AppHTML" /overwrite
DFManageVDir.exe remove "{website}" "WebOrder_19"

Note: Use /quiet mode to hide console.

Examples - Register or Remove ISAPI Handler

DFManageVDir.exe add-wso-restriction
DFManageVDir.exe remove-wso-restriction

WebAppServer Build Notes

Build 19.0.9

Fixed a bug in the Web Application Administrator where it was invalidly giving warnings that the Virtual Directory name already exists. This bug was introduced with the change to the new IIS7 management API's.

Build 19.0.7

Fixed a bug in the implementation of AddHttpResponseHeader of waswsvc.dll that could cause the 'Unsupported Web Service endpoint subsystem operation' error to get logged.

Build 19.0.4

Fixed a bug in the Web Application Administrator from showing negative numbers for the ‘Client Messages’ and ‘Server Messages’ when overflowing.

Build 19.0.3

The waswsvc.dll and wasasp.dll are now available as 64-bit versions. These binaries and their dependencies will be placed in the new Bin64 folder of DataFlex. With these DLLs, the WebApp Server can now be used with 64-bit versions of IIS. The ISAPI handler can be registered with the bitness32 / bitness64 precondition so that IIS will automatically pick the right version. The 64-bit version of wasasp.dll will automatically be used as it is using the same CLSID.

To accommodate these 64-bit versions, the registration process for Virtual Directories has been rewritten. It now automatically registers both the 32-bit and 64-bit ISAPI handlers. A command line interface is available with DFManageVDir.exe, and a COM Automation API is available with DFManageIIS.dll. The IIS7+ APIs are now being used, so the requirement to install the IIS6 Compatibility Metabase is now deprecated.

The new registration process also allows the selection of the website under which the virtual directory is created in both the Studio and the Web Application Administrator. If the virtual directory is left blank, the root of the website will be changed to point to the AppHtml of the workspace.

Build 19.0.2

Updated the Xalan and Xerces libraries to the latest versions (Xalan 1.11 and Xerces 3.1). These new versions include several bug fixes, including ones for memory leaks. This should fix the w3wp.exe crashes seen on several machines that seemed to happen when shutting down the waswsvc.dll ISAPI handler.