Foundation1 / Development Guide / Web Client / Introduction / This page

Introduction

This page provides overview of what are the technologies being used in IFS Web Client and how they are used. Also they will explain the architecture of IFS Web Client, how it is structured, how it works etc. 

Contents

• Programming Languages Used
• The Architecture of IFS Web Client
• Framework for IFS Web Client
• Step by step - how the IFS Web Client solutions work

Programming Languages Used

IFS Web Client uses the following languages that are described in the linked pages:

• JavaScript - Wikipedia
• HTML - Wikipedia
• Java (programming language) - Wikipedia

The Architecture of IFS Web Client 

IFS Web Client component is a framework for creating a web based user interface for IFS Application. Since IFS Web Client 3.5, Web client was made platform independent which fully uses Java technology. IFS Web Client is written entirely in the Java programming language and deployed in a Java EE application server as a web archive. The framework is build on the Java Servlet architecture. The IFS Web Client Architecture chapter in the Foundation1 Overview will walk you through some of the technologies used and the architecture of IFS Web Client.

Framework for IFS Web Client

For technical overview of IFS Web Client please visit "Technical Overview" section. 

At the web server an IFS Web Client Java framework library is available. The Java pages instantiates these Java objects and uses their functionality to, for an example access the business logic and the data. Database access and authentication is always done through the Extended Server.  The Java framework acts like a class library available from the Java-pages in the web tier part of Java EE application server. The Java classes include different functionality:

• Create standardized GUI objects in HTML.
• Handle connection and operations between the Extended Server to the business logic located in Oracle.
• Create JavaScript to handle the logic executed on the client web browser.
• Handle different kinds of IFS Web Client service functions such as: configuration files, translations, monitoring functionality, IFS Navigator, generating business graphics and etc.

Step by step - how the IFS Web Client solutions work

 The execution of a Java page is initiated by the RequestHandler servlet, one of the few servlets that the IFS Web Client uses. A Java page is an ordinary Java class that will indirectly be called from the RequestHandler. The RequestHandler construct an instance of ASPManager and ASPManager instance take responsibility to find the corresponding class according to the requested URL. And run its logic and produce the HTML.

Java pages at the Server

A Java file at the servlet engine can be divided into two sections:

• Logic section, code for creating the page objects and perform database operations and other work. This section uses the Java framework to define its structure, query the database and other utility work.
• HTML section, code for creating the HTML layout. Most of the Layout is produced by the Java framework. It is still possible to append static HTML or produce your own dynamically built HTML in this section.
   

Java pages at the client

The response sent from the web server/servlet engine to the client web-browser might contain three typed of code:

• HTML text which is transformed by the browser into visual objects on the screen. This is the part of the web page that is actually seen. The HTML sent to the client could be generated from Java at the server or be static HTML just fetched from a file.
• JavaScript is actually created dynamically at the server by Java and sent to the client. JavaScript functions are triggered by events, like changed value of an HTML field, and executed by the browser. JavaScript can be executed on any modern browser. JavaScript is used to create a client-based logic without accessing the server.