Using Statements and Commands in a NaturalX Server Environment

The behavior of some Natural statements and Natural system commands changes in a server environment.

This document covers the following topics:

Natural Statements

This section covers the following statements:

DISPLAY, INPUT, PRINT, REINPUT and WRITE Statements

  • Output to a screen (output to Report 0) is not appropriate in a server environment, and in some cases is not possible. Therefore, in the case of an interactive I/O in the server environment, the error NAT0723 is returned to the client. Redirecting the I/O by using the MAINPR parameter is, of course, possible and is fully supported.

  • When output is written to a report by a method, the report is opened at the start of the method and closed at the end. The report is not kept open between method calls to avoid interference between clients.

WRITE WORK FILE and READ WORK FILE Statements

When you access a work file in a method, the file is opened at the start of the method and closed at the end. The file is not kept open between method calls to avoid interference between clients.

STOP and TERMINATE Statements

  • The behavior of the TERMINATE statement matches that of the STOP statement. Processing of return values is not supported.

  • The STOP and TERMINATE statements behave in the same way as the ESCAPE ROUTINE statement during method execution. Method execution is terminated immediately without producing any return value.

Natural System Commands

Only the following Natural commands are allowed in the server environment:

  • CATALOG

  • CLEAR

  • EXECUTE

  • LOGOFF

  • LOGON

  • READ

  • RETURN

  • RUN

  • SAVE

  • SETUP

  • STOW

From this list, the commands CATALOG, CLEAR, READ, RUN, SAVE and STOW are only allowed if the server is running under a development Natural (natural.exe).

All commands that are not allowed will be rejected with the error NAT0082.