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Bootstrapping a WebClient Application
Whether you use IntelliStream or an external installer to install your application, your WebClient application is always started by WebClient Initializer. For information about installation options, see "Designing Your End User’s Experience".
WebClient Initializer is a program that controls the installation, update, and execution of a WebClient application that can also include installing a different version of WebClient itself.
WebClient Initializer uses information in an application configuration file to control how it starts a WebClient application. The information that you provide in this application configuration file allows WebClient Initializer to identify and verify the status of both WebClient and the application on the user’s system, and to start the application.
Starting the Application
You can provide two basic options for the user to start a WebClient application:
- URL — This option allows the user to start the application from a Web browser. The specified URL identifies a
bootstrap.htm
file provided by Progress that you must customize to access the WebClient One-Click install image and your application configuration file. Thisbootstrap.htm
file starts the process of installing and executing both WebClient and the application that it runs. You can make this URL available to the user in any way appropriate for your Web site. For example, you can have a user enter the URL directly in the locator of their browser, or you can provide a link to this URL on your application Web page.NOTE: If WebClient is installed from a CD, you should still use thebootstrap.htm
file to install the application.
- Shortcut — This option allows the user to start the application directly from the Windows desktop. If you use IntelliStream, this shortcut can be created automatically using the System Tasks Option in the WebClient Application Assembler. If you use an external installer, your installer must create this shortcut.
How the Bootstrapping Process Works
The prescribed way to bootstrap your WebClient application is to use the
bootstrap.htm
file that Progress provides and that you must customize. Thebootstrap.htm
file is used to initiate the installation process.For information about customizing this file see the "Customizing the Bootstrap.htm File" section.
This
bootstrap.htm
has the following logical paths:
- If WebClient is not installed, your end user is taken to a Web page to install WebClient.
- If WebClient is installed, WebClient Initializer runs and performs the following tasks:
- Checks that an acceptable version of WebClient is installed on the user’s system and gives the user an opportunity to update the version of the WebClient installation, if necessary.
- Checks whether the application is installed on the user’s system and gives the user an opportunity to install it, if necessary.
- Checks whether any application updates are required and gives the user an opportunity to update the application, if necessary.
- Starts the application
Whenever WebClient Initializer runs, it takes your users to the next step of the bootstrapping process. Therefore, any process to which WebClient initializer gives control to perform an installation step (WebClient install and external application install) needs to run WebClient Initializer again for the bootstrapping process to continue and ultimately run the application.
Figure 7–10 illustrates the bootstrapping process and shows the bootstrap process flow depending on WebClient Initializer’s verification at the different decision points in the process. This process is transparent to your end user, and depends on whether you used IntelliStream or an external installer and how you customized your WebClient installation to install and start your application.
Figure 7–10: Bootstrapping Process
NOTE: During this bootstrapping process, if any URL requires authentication on your Web server, the end user receives a prompt for the appropriate user ID and password.Bootstrapping with No WebClient Installed
If WebClient is not found on the user’s machine, the
bootstrap.htm
file opens a WebClient installation page based on a URL that you specify. This WebClient installation URL is determined by you and must be customized in the bootstrap HTML file. For more information on the WebClient installation page, see the "Installing WebClient" section.Bootstrapping with Some Version of the WebClient Installed
If any version of WebClient is found on the user’s machine, the
bootstrap.htm
file references a URL to the application’s configuration file, which runs WebClient Initializer. This configuration file URL is determined by you and must be customized in thebootstrap.htm
file.Customizing the Bootstrap.htm File
For any scenario using the
bootstrap.htm
file, you must customize the file provided by Progress. To customize thebootstrap.htm
file, you must substitute your own URLs for the two URL settings shown in bold:
document.locations.href
— This setting specifies the URL of the .CAB
file containing the application configuration file for the applicationwindow.location
— This setting specifies the URL of the Web page used to access the WebClient installer over the Web. You can use your own customized version of WebClient or the default WebClient installer provided on the Progress Web site.See the sample
bootstrap.htm
file that follows:
Matching Letter Case in URL Pathnames
If you are using a UNIX Web server, URL pathnames that you provide must match the letter case of these pathnames on the Web server. If the letter case of these pathnames and filenames do not match, your end users will receive a message that the files cannot be found when they attempt to install and run WebClient and your application.
Checking for an Acceptable Version of WebClient
The first verification WebClient Initializer does is to determine that an acceptable version of WebClient is installed on your user’s system. The Initializer compares the installed versions of WebClient with the acceptable versions listed in the application configuration file. If there is an acceptable but older version, the Initializer gives the user an opportunity to install the preferred version or run with an existing version. If there is no older but acceptable version, the Initializer gives the user an opportunity to install the preferred version.
For any case where the user chooses to install the preferred version of WebClient, the Initializer opens a Web browser on the user’s system to the URL of the WebClient installation specified in the application configuration file and exits, allowing the user to continue with the installation over the Web.
If the user chooses to go with an acceptable version already installed, the Initializer proceeds with the next validation. Otherwise, the Initializer exits without proceeding.
Whatever WebClient version the user chooses to run, the user can activate a Don’t ask me this again toggle box to prevent notification of another update until you specify a different preferred version in the configuration file.
If WebClient Initializer finds that the application specified in the configuration file is not installed, one of the following happens:
Checking for Required Application Updates
If WebClient Initializer finds that the installed version of the application is out of date, it gives the user an opportunity to update it. For more information, see the "WebClient Application Updates" section.
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