OpenEdge Development:<br />Open Client Introduction and Programming Getting user input for run-time connection information

.NET and Java Open Clients provide the capability to set connection parameters and certain other parameters at run time (run-time properties). They can be specified when launching the client, or the user can be prompted to supply them. For more information, see the "Accessing Open Client run-time properties" section.

Your Open Client application might need to obtain information from the end user if:

You need to provide the names and locations of root digital certificates, for an HTTPS connection, to authenticate the identity of a Web server, or for an SSL intranet connection, to authenticate the identity of an AppServer. Every Web server that hosts the AIA and supports the HTTPS protocol and every SSL-enabled AppServer must have a server digital certificate of a Certificate Authority (CA). Authentication is done using a root digital certificate located on the client machine. Because the location of this certificate depends on the location of the certificate store where the root digital certificate was installed, the location of the root digital certificate must be available at run time.

For .NET Open Clients, this is not an issue, because .NET maintains a common certificate store for all .NET applications that require access to root digital certificates. However, for Java Open Clients, there is no standard installation location for certificate stores. Therefore, a Java Open Client application might have to determine the location of the certificate store that it requires at run time and pass it to the Open Client Runtime using the RunTimeProperties class.

You need to access the Internet using a proxy server. If your application must go through an HTTP proxy server to connect to the AIA or WSA, the application needs to know the proxy host address and port and any required user ID and password. A .NET or Java application passes this information to the Open Client Runtime, using the methods and properties of the RuntimeProperties class. A Web service client has its own mechanism for handling Internet access using a proxy server, depending on the client platform.

An HTTP or HTTPS URL requires a userid and password for authentication to the Web server hosting the AIA or WSA.

An AppServer requires a userid and password to access its application service.

The connection URL format differs between the AppServer/AppServerDC and AppServerS/AppServerDCS protocols and the HTTP and HTTPS protocols.

You communicate with more than one AIA. You might need to use:

Different URL file paths.

More than one application service.

The application might automatically prompt the user for the information when it starts, or it might choose to dynamically handle the Connection Error status returns specific to failed server authentications and retry the connection after getting the information from the end user.