The Connection manager is a document window is used to define connections to Application Servers. The window can be started from the Backstage menu. If no Application Server connections are defined this window will be started automatically when the Smart Client starts up.
An Application Server connection is a named set of settings that need to be specified to be able to connect the Smart Client to an Application Server. You can create and manage any number of Application Server connections with this window. The connections defined in the Connection Manager will be available in the Connect to Application Server window.
To define an Application Server connection you have to know some details about the configuration of the Application Server you want to create a connection for. Usually you will receive the settings together with your login data for an Redbex Application Server.
You have to create Application Server Connections in the Connection Manager before you can connect to an Application Server.
Figure 1: The Connection manager window, showing a typical connection for an Application Server installed in the local network.
The list on the left side of the window (Figure 1) shows the currently defined connections. The connections in this list are shown with their name and a summary of connection settings. The icon for the list element shows if the connection is a regular connection or the default connection.
On the right side the window displays details of the connection currently selected in the list.
The Name box specifies the name of the connection and is used to identify the connection in the Connect to Application Server dialogue. Each connection must have a unique non empty name.
The Communication protocol drop down list defines the network protocol used to access the Application Server. Note that wile you can select from all protocols that are theoretically supported by the Application Server, your Application Server might not be configured to allow connections with all these protocols and also not all protocols might be suitable for the network connection between the Smart Client and the Application Server. E.g. it is unlikely that the TCP connection protocol will work if you access the Application Server from outside a local area network.
In the Server address box you type the address of the Application Server. For connections over the internet this is usually a DNS name like myserver.mydomain.com, for local area network connections the name is usually just the host name like myserver, if your Application Server runs on the same machine as the Smart client you can use localhost. The Server address can also be specified as IP address like 192.168.0.3.
Each Instance of an Application Server provides its services with a specific service path. In the Service path box you specify the service path of the Application Server Instance you want to connect to. If not configured differently by the administrator of your Application Server the service path is by default redbex .
The Port box defines the network port on which the Application Server listens for service requests. If not changed by the Administrator of your Application Server the default port for connections using HTTP is 80, for connections using TCP 5660, and for confections using HTTPS 443. The port is a positive integer between 1 and 65535.
The maximum user session idle time is the time span after which the Application Server will consider a user Session initiated by a login as ended and will automatically close this session. The Application Server defines a default, a minimum and a maximum for this idle time. The Smart client can request a timeout different from the Application Server's default. In the Requested user session timeout box you can define the maximum user session idle time the for user sessions that the Smart Client will request from the Application Server. The value specified here is a suggestion that the client will send to the Application Server on Login. The Application Server will set the actual maximum user session idle time according to the defined minimum and maximum value.
The User name and Password boxes can be used to predefine the username and optionally password for the connection. These two boxes need not to be filled if you prefer to type username and password each time you connect to the Application Server. When entered the password is stored on the Computer where the Smart Client is installed (the stored password symmetrically encrypted using Windows' Data Protection API).
The Preferred date time offset is the offset in which the Application Server shall present date & time values. See chapter Date time offset for more details.
The Send timeout, Open timeout, Close timeout and Receive timeout boxes allow fine grained control of various timeouts that apply to the communication between Smart Client and Application Server. The default values set for newly created connections will work in most cases. However you can change the values to fit the capabilities of your IT environment. Note that when accessing specific services the Smart Client and the Application Server might negotiate different timeouts, e.g. when transferring binary files.
The Send timeout defines how long the Smart Client will wait for a response from the Application Server service. The Open timeout is the amount of time the Smart Client will wait when opening a connection the Application Server. Similarly, the Close timeout is the amount of time that the Smart Client will wait for (successfully) closing a connection. The Receive timeout is the maximum time the Smart Client can take to process the result of a service call.
Setting the default connection
From the context menu of a list item you can set the selected connection as the default connection. The default connection is the connection the Smart Client will automatically select in the Connect to server window when it is started. There can be only one default connection, i.e. if you set a connection as default connection a previously defined default connection will be reverted to a regular connection.
Testing connections
Application Server connections can be tested in the Connection Manager. To do so choose Test from the context menu of an entry in the list box of Application Server Connections. The result of the connection test will be shown next to the Name of the connection in the list of Application Server connections.
The test will be performed with the connection settings even if those settings were not saved yet. Note that for really creating a connection with modified settings you have to save those settings first.
Note that the connection test address, port and protocol, user credentials are not tested.
