Version 8.2 (2013-03-18)
 —  Configuration  —

Configuration of Application Designer

In general, you can use Application Designer from scratch, that is: without any further configuration. This document explains certain options for fine-tuning Application Designer. The following topics are covered:


Overview of Configuration Files

The web.xml file is located according to the servlet specification:

<webapplication>/WEB-INF/web.xml

Inside the Application Designer installation's web application there is a directory cis/config in which you can find the Application Designer configuration files.

<webapplication>/cis/config/cisconfig.xml
<webapplication>/cis/config/controllibraries.xml
<webapplication>/cis/config/editor.xml
<webapplication>/cis/config/editortemplates.xml
<webapplication>/cis/config/startapps.xml

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web.xml

The web.xml file contains:

This section only focuses on the configuration information.

Inside the definition for the servlet Connector there are two init-param elements that are relevant for the system configuration:

<servlet id="Connector">
    <servlet-name>Connector</servlet-name>
    <display-name>Connector</display-name>
    <servlet-class>com.softwareag.cis.server.Connector</servlet-class>
        <init-param id="CISHOME">
            <param-name>cis.home</param-name>
            <param-value>REALPATH</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <init-param id="CISLOG">
            <param-name>cis.log</param-name>
            <param-value>REALPATH/../../../log/</param-value>
        </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
cis.home

This parameter points to the directory location of the web application - if you are using it in design time mode. During design time, Application Designer needs to know this file location in order to correctly place generated page files and other information. At runtime, especially if running the Application Designer web application in a clustered application server scenario, this parameter should be wiped out. For further information, see the section Design Time Mode and Runtime Mode.

The parameter can either be set to a directory name (for example, c:/cisinstall/tomcat/webapps/cis/) or to the parameter REALPATH.

REALPATH is dynamically interpreted at runtime. The name is internally requested by using the getRealpath() method of the servlet context.

Caution:
The above mentioned method is not supported by all servlet containers, it is only supported by the servlet containers that explicitly deploy into the file system (such as Tomcat, Jetty and IBM Websphere).

cis.log

This parameter points to the directory to which log information is written. Take care in a clustered scenario that the directory is not set to a fixed directory value: the directory may not be available on each cluster node.

You can use the REALPATH parameter and you can specify the log location relative to the directory (for example, REALPATH/log).

You can specify TEMP to indicate that the log is written to a temporary directory that every servlet container must provide as part of the servlet specification. When using TEMP, your application is clusterable - the application server will tell Application Designer for each node where to store log information.

There is a second parameter influencing the log: this parameter is located in the file cisconfig.xml, its name is startmonitoringthread. The Application Designer log file is only written if this parameter is set to "true". Reason: the log is not directly written to the log file but is always buffered in memory first. The monitoring thread is started every 5 seconds and writes the buffered data to the file system. If the startmonitoringthread is not started, the log is automatically written to the logging that is provided by the servlet container. (Internally, the servlet context's log method is used.) The same will happen if you wipe out the CISLOG section from the web.xml file. In this case, Application Designer will use the log interface provided by the servlet context for writing log information.

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cisconfig.xml

The following topics are covered below:

General Parameters

The cisconfig.xml file contains some general control information. The following is a very basic example:

<cisconfig startmonitoringthread="true"
           requestclienthost="false"
           debugmode="false"
           loglevel="EWI"
           logtoscreen="false"
           sessiontimeout="3600"
           xmldatamanager="com.softwareag.cis.xmldata.filebased.XMLDataManager"
           useownclassloader="true"
           browserpopuponerror="false"
           framebuffersize="3"
           onlinehelpmanager="com.softwareag.cis.onlinehelp.projectbased.FrameHelpOHManager"
           textencoding="UTF-8"
           enableadapterpreload="true">
</cisconfig>
animatecontrols

Default: true.

Defines how Application Designer handles the animation of controls. There are several controls that can be rendered in an animated way and in a standard way.

Setting this parameter to "false" can help to improve performance, especially if you are not using the newest hardware.

Values: true/false.

browserpopuponerror

Default: false.

Defines how Application Designer handles it if the application behind an Application Designer page throws an error.

By default (false), the browser switches to an error screen. In the screen, the user can only abort the current function. This is the default way in which any kind of inconsistency is automatically omitted.

When you set browserpopuponerror to "true", the browser opens a pop-up window in which the error is output. This setting should only be used during development because it may cause inconsistencies in the application.

Values: true/false.

clientsideerrorinstatusbar

Default: false.

By default, client-side error messages are displayed as pop-ups.

When you set this parameter to "true", client-side error messages are displayed in the status bar.

Values: true/false.

collectionorblocklimit

Default: 300.

Defines the maximum number of items in a grid after which the framework automatically switches from client-side scrolling to server-side scrolling. See also the description of onloadbehaviour="collectionorblock" in Setting the Client-Side Loading Behavior in Layout Elements.

createhttpsession

Default: false.

Internally, Application Designer does not require HTTP session management that is provided by the servlet container. Some application servers (especially in clustered scenarios in which Application Designer runs in several nodes) require an explicit HTTP session ID to be used in order to route requests from a browser client always to the right application server node in the cluster. Set createhttpsession to "true" in this case.

Values: true/false.

debugmode

Default: false.

A log is written permanently into Application Designer's log directory. When debugmode is set to "true", a lot of information which normally is not required is written to the log.

Be aware that you can also set the debug mode dynamically within your running system. Application Designer provides a monitoring tool in which you can switch the debug mode on and off.

Values: true/false.

defaultcss

You can set your own default style sheet for your entire application. For example:

../cis/styles/MY_STYLE.css
defaultlanguage

Default: en (English).

Defines the language that is to be used by default when starting Application Designer. If not set, "en" is used. See Multi Language Management for detailed information on using different languages with Application Designer.

designtimeclassloader

By default, Application Designer uses an own class loader for accessing adapter classes at design time. (You can switch this off by specifying useownclassloader="false".)

With the designtimeclassloader, you can explicitly select a class loader class that Application Designer is to use. This allows you to use class loaders that offer special functions such as reading encrypted class files.

Value: the name of a class loader class.

enableadapterpreload

Default: true.

By default, the server sends all required responses at once to the client, even if different adapters are involved.

If set to "false", a separate data transfer occurs for each involved adapter.

errorreactionadapter

In case of an unhandled application error, the Application Designer runtime navigates to an error page. The class name specified in errorreactionadapter is the Java adapter for this error page.

If an error reaction adapter is not specified, a default adapter is used which shows the error's stack trace.

The Application Designer framework contains a second error reaction adapter with the class name com.softwareag.cis.server.SecureErrorReactionAdapter. For security reasons, this adapter does not show a stack trace but only an error message.

You can write your own error reaction adapter and create your own error page. An error reaction adapter must implement one of the interfaces com.softwareag.cis.server.ISecureErrorReactionAdapter or com.softwareag.cis.server.IErrorReactionAdapter. For more information, see the corresponding Java documentation.

fieldnumerictypesrightaligned

Default: false.

Set this parameter to "true" in order to right-align text within the FIELD control when using the data type int, long or float.

Values: true/false.

framebuffersize

Default: 3.

Each page in the browser client runs inside a surrounding page. This surrounding page offers a couple of internal functions, one of them to buffer contained Application Designer pages: if a user opens the first page and then navigates to a second page, the first page is internally kept inside a frame buffer. If returning to the first page later on, the browser does not have to build up the first page from scratch but just switches to the buffered page.

The framebuffersize defines the number of buffered pages. Increasing the framebuffersize means that more resources are used on the client (browser) side. When changing this value, you should test the memory consumption on the client side before rolling out the change to productively running implementations.

Value: integer number.

loglevel

Default: EWI.

Defines the message types that are to be logged. Values:

E (error)
W (warning)
I (information)
D (debug)

You can specify any combination of message types by concatenating the message types.

Example: "EW" logs all error and warning messages. "EWI" additionally logs information messages.

Caution:
When having set debugmode to "true", the loglevel filter is automatically bypassed and all messages are logged. debugmode is stronger than loglevel.

logtoscreen

Default: false.

If this parameter is set to "true", all Application Designer log information is also output to the command screen from which you started Application Designer. This parameter should only be set to "true" if running in development mode.

Values: true/false.

maxitemsinfieldcombo

Default: 100.

The FIELD control provides for a predefined pop-up method openIdValueComboOrPopup. Depending on the size of the list of valid values, the list is either shown in a combo box or in a pop-up. Use this parameter to control the maximum number of entries that are to be shown in the combo box.

Value: integer number.

maxworkplaceactivities

Default: -1 (unlimited).

The maximum number of workplace activities in a workplace application. For reactions when the maximum number is reached, see Customizing the MFWPFUNCTIONS Behavior in Working with Pages.

multilanguagemanager

Internally, Application Designer uses an interface to retrieve the translation information for a certain text ID and a certain language. A default implementation is available that stores the corresponding language information in files that are part of the web application. You can build your own multi language manager - by using the com.softwareag.cis.multilanguage.IMLManager interface - in case you already have an existing framework for multi language management.

Value: the name of the class that supports Application Designer's multi language interface.

onlinehelpmanager

Application Designer accesses a certain URL when the user presses F1 on certain controls (for example, fields, check boxes and others). Application Designer transfers a corresponding help ID that is defined with the control into a URL and opens this URL in a pop-up window. If you have your own mechanisms for defining this URL, you can implement a corresponding Application Designer Java interface (com.softwareag.cis.onlinehelp.IOHManager).

Value: the name of the interface.

requestclienthost

Default: false.

If a client sends an HTTP request, it is determined for the first request from which client this request is coming. This operation is sometimes quite expensive. For this reason, you can switch it off. If switched off, there is no disadvantage in normal operation, besides in the monitoring tool you cannot identify which session belongs to which client.

Values: true/false.

requestdataconverter

Application Designer allows to pass each value that is input by the user through an explicit data converter on the server side, prior to passing this value to the application. In the data converter, you can implement certain security checks, for example, you can prevent users from inputting string sequences containing inline JavaScript or SQL scripting. See the interface com.softwareag.cis.server.IRequestDataConverter for more information. See also Security Aspects in the Special Development Topics.

Value: name of a class that implements the interface com.softwareag.cis.server.IRequestDataConverter.

sessionidasthreadname

Default: true.

On start of each page request processing, the Application Designer runtime calls the method Thread.setName with the current session ID (default).

You can set this parameter to "false" to instruct the Application Designer runtime not to touch the thread's name.

Values: true/false.

sessiontimeout

Default: 3600 (1 hour).

Application Designer sessions are timed out according to the value defined with this parameter. This is the definition of the timeout phase in seconds. By default, 3600 is defined in the configuration file. If no parameter is specified in the configuration file, 7200 is used.

Value: integer number.

startmonitoringthread

Default: true.

If set to "true", a monitoring thread is opened which wakes up every 5 seconds. The thread performs the following activities:

  1. It initiates a garbage collection periodically (every two minutes).

  2. It writes all log information into a log file (every five seconds).

  3. It calls the clean up of sessions which are timed out (every two minutes)

What happens if the monitoring thread is not started?

  1. No garbage collection will be triggered by Application Designer. This is then the task of the servlet container around.

  2. The log is not automatically written to the file location specified in the web.xml file, but is written to the servlet container's logging.

  3. Timing out sessions is not done every two minutes but every thousand requests.

Caution:
Some servlet containers do not allow to let the web application start new threads (for example, the Sun reference implementations do so). For these containers, the parameter must be set to "false".

Values: true/false.

suppressfocusmanagement

Default: false.

If you set this parameter to "true", no focus management in the client will be done after a server round trip. This means: The focus will not be set to focus-requesting controls such as "EDIT" fields with "ERROR" status after a server round trip.

Usually, you do not set this parameter. If you need to suppress focus management for specific server round trips, you usually do this from within your adapter code for these specific server round trips. See also the focusmgtprop in the NATPAGE control. Only set this parameter to "true" if your application needs to do it vice versa: Suppress focus mangement for nearly all server round trips and only explicitly activate focus management for some specific server round trips from within your adapter code.

Values: true/false.

takeoutfieldpopupicon

Default: false.

Set this parameter to "true" in case you are using right-aligned FIELD controls with value help. This will avoid overlapping of the right-aligned text and the corresponding drop-down icon.

Values: true/false.

textencoding

Default: UTF-8.

By default, Application Designer reads and writes text files in UTF-8 format. You can tell Application Designer to use a different format (for example, for writing XML layout definitions). But be very careful and very aware of what you are doing.

See also Unicode in the Multi Language Management documentation.

urlsessiontimeout

When Application Designer times out a session (see the sessiontimeout parameter) and the user tries to continue to work with the session, a page will be displayed inside the user's browser, indicating that a timeout happened with the user's session. By default, this page is an Application Designer page that you might not want to show to your application users.

Value: the URL of the page that is to be shown instead of the default page.

usemessagepopup

Default: false.

Set this parameter to "true" in order to show status messages as message pop-ups.

Values: true/false.

useownclassloader

Default: true.

If set to "true", Application Designer uses its own class loader to load application classes.

This parameter may be set to "false" in certain environments, for example, if you use Application Designer inside an environment which requires all application classes to run in the environment's own class loader environment.

Caution:
The Application Designer class loader automatically searches for classes in certain directories (<project>/appclasses/classes and <project>/appclasses/lib). If you do not use the Application Designer class loader, you have to set up your environment accordingly.

Values: true/false.

xmldatamanager

This parameter defines the file name of the class which implements the com.softwareag.cis.xmldata.IXMLDataManager interface. You can specify an own class here. The com.softwareag.cis.xmldata.XMLDataManagerFactory creates an instance using a constructor without any parameter.

zipcontent

Default: true.

Between the browser and the server, data content is exchanged. By default, Application Designer zips the content before sending a response from the server to the browser client.

Sometimes you may want to actually "see" what is being sent (maybe you have a test tool that captures the HTTP protocol). Set zipcontent to "false" if you do not want Application Designer to zip the data content returned to the client.

Values: true/false.

Directory for Performance Traces

The requestrecording section of the cisconfig.xml file indicates the directory in which recorded performance traces are stored.

<cisconfig ...>
    <requestrecording recordrequests="false"
                      recorddirectory="c:/temp/traces/">
    </requestrecording>
</cisconfig>

See also:

Central Class Path Extensions for Development

If you want to use your own class path extension, you may add a subsection to the cisconfig.xml file in which you extend the class path of the Application Designer class loader at development time:

<cisconfig ...>
    <classpathextension path="c:/development/centralclasses/classes"/>
    <classpathextension path="c:/development/centralclasses/libs/central.jar"/>
</cisconfig>

Each class path extension is listed with a reference to its physical path.

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controllibraries.xml - Adding Control Libraries

In this file, all control libraries are registered which you use for your layout definitions. You only need to modify this file if you use non-Application Designer control libraries. For details, see Customized Controls.

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editortemplates.xml

This file defines the layout templates that are offered for selection when you create a new layout with the Layout Painter. If you do not want to use the default templates, you can customize them. For details, see the comments in the editortemplates.xml file.

See also:

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editor.xml - Available Controls

This file contains data about all the controls which may be used inside the Layout Painter. You should never change this file - Application Designer offers a smart way to append your own definitions to the ones coming from Application Designer: You can create editor_<xxxxx>.xml files in which you specify your delta compared to editor.xml. For details, see:

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startapps.xml - Applications to be Started

It is possible to define that certain applications require to be started immediately inside the start processing of Application Designer. For details, see Becoming a Member of the Startup Process in the Special Development Topics.

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Customizing Configuration Files

This description applies only available when Application Designer is part of a Natural for Ajax installation.

You can customize the following default configuration files:

cisconfig.xml
controllibraries.xml
editortemplates.xml
startapps.xml

However, modifying the above default configuration files has the following disadvantage: With each Application Designer version or update package, Application Designer brings its own default configuration files. If you forget to save your settings before installing an upgrade, your customized files will be overwritten by the upgrade. Therefore, it is more convenient if your customized files do not have the same names as the default files.

The Configuration Manager tool supports the creation of custom configuration files with the following names:

user_cisconfig.xml
user_controllibraries.xml
user_editortemplates.xml
user_startapps.xml

Instead of modifying the default configuration files, it is recommended that you modify the corresponding user_*.xml files.

Application Designer always checks whether a custom configuration file with the name user_*.xml exists. When it exists, Application Designer uses the user_*.xml file and ignores the default file. If a user_*.xml file does not exist, Application Designer uses the default file.

Note:
editor.xml is not intended to be modified. If you want to add your own controls, you should write your own editor_<xxxxx>.xml file as described above for the editor.xml file.

Start of instruction setTo create custom configuration files (user_*.xml files)

  1. Start the development workplace.

  2. In the Development Tools node of the navigation frame (which is visible when the Tools & Documentation button has previously been chosen), choose Configuration Manager.

    Configuration Manager

  3. Choose the Help tab which is shown for the Configuration Manager.

  4. See the help text for information on how to proceed.

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