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Passage Server Development

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Programming Concept
HTTP Front-End Engine
Java Content Engine and API
Database Engine
Data Presentation Engine


Programming Concept

1. Client/Server architecture

Server-side programming language is Java.

Applications are based on Client/Server architecture, where the client is Internet Browser
and the server is Passage Server.
Structurally the server has four modules that work together:
- HTTP Front-End Engine
- Java Content Engine
- Database Engine
- Data Presentation Engine

2. Steps required:

- Creating applications
- Writing and compiling Java requests [.java/.class]
- Creating data sources and writing SQL requests [.sql]
- Creating users and assigning requests to users [if security is needed]
- Creating HTML pages

3. Application

Application is a collection of
- Java requests [.java/.class]
- SQL requests [.sql]
- Data sources [ODBC]
- Databases (Access, SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle Server, ...]
- Users
- HTML pages [.html]
- Data files [.txt, .pdf, .doc, .xls, ...]
- Image files [.jpg, .gif, .png, ...]
- Video files [.swf, .mov, .avi, .wmv, .mp4, ...]

4. Request

Request is a server-side executable code that
- implements business logic
- generates/prepares data
- sets output HTML page
Request can be either Java code [.java/.class] or SQL statement [.sql].
Java request can call other Java or SQL requests.

5. Upload/Download

Passage Server provides Application, Request and file [.html, .css, .jpg, ...] transfer functionality.
It is used for transfering Application components from one server to another. For example from development to production.

Request components, i.e. Java [.java/.class] or SQL [.sql], are stored in
[requestname].req file.
Application components, i.e. Requests, HTML pages, Data Sources and Users are stored in
[applicationname].app file.

Files *.app and *.req have JAR format, and are used by Passage Studio for upload/download.

6. Software

Typically you would use the following software
- Passage Studio for application development [creating Applications, Requests, Data Sources, Users]
- Java IDE or Notepad for writing Java requests
- Java IDE or command line for Java request compilation
- HTML editor or Notepad for wrinting HTML pages
- Internet browser for running applications

HTTP Front-End Engine

Passage Server accepts GET and POST http requests.

HTML link [GET]:

<a href="http://127.0.0.1/AppName/HelloWorld(param1,param2)">Hello World!</a>

HTML form [POST]:

<form method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="server_request" value="HelloWorld(param1,param2)">
<input type="submit" value="Hello World!">
</form>

ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data" is supported.

Java Content Engine and API

Request can be either Java code or SQL statement.

Typical Java Request
- takes parameters
- calls other Java or SQL Requests
- gets data from database, text files, ...
- processes data
- creates output table(s)
- puts processed data into output table(s)
- sets output HTML page

Typical SQL Request
- takes parameters
- gets/puts data from/to database

The following features make Passage Server Request code compact, fast, simple and easy to develop:

- Request is a compiled Java code
- Request does not generate HTML page, data presentation is done by the server outside of Request
- Request does not deal with Java exceptions, exceptions are handled by the server outside of Request
- Request does not deal with SQL language, instead it calls Requests written in SQL
- Request does not deal with SQL data sources, it does not create and delete data source connection each time when database access is needed, instead it uses data source connection pool managed by the server
- Java API is simple, so it makes the balance between your Java business logic code and Java system code 99/1 %, which increases development productivity

For application development you use Passage Studio. For Java Request compilation you use any Java IDE or command line
javac -d . -classpath .;c:\...\ws.jar; *.java

Hello World!     HelloWorld.java     HelloWorldSQL.sql     HelloWorld.html     Passage Server Java API

Database Engine

For database access you create
- ODBC Data Source
- Passage Server Data Source with the same name
- SQL Request (SQL statement, data source and parameters)

Then Java Request calls SQL Request and processes data.

Data Presentation Engine

Request creates output table(s) with data and sets output HTML page. In order to put data from output table(s) to HTML page the special data tags are used. The server replaces the tags with actual data at run time and sends HTML page to a browser. The data tags make HTML page dynamic.

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery, and Ajax code can be used with no limitations.

#FIELD(tbl,row,col)
Parameters:
tbl - the output table number
row - the output row number
col - the output column number
Returns:
Content of table cell
Example:
#FIELD(2,5,10)


#TABLE(tbl)
Parameters:
tbl - the output table number [0,1,2,...]
Returns:
HTML table rows <tr><td>...</td><td>...</td></tr>
Example:
<table class='...'>
#TABLE(0)
</table>


#SELECT(tbl,col_value,col_show)
Parameters:
tbl - the output table number
col_value - the output column number to be used for value <option value='***'>...</option>
col_show - the output column number to be shown <option value='...'>***</option>
Returns:
HTML SELECT options
Example:
<select name='...' size='1' class='...'>
#SELECT(0,0,1)
</select>

Hello World!     HelloWorld.java     HelloWorldSQL.sql     HelloWorld.html     Passage Server Java API