Chapter 1: Creating Component-Based Applications

Deploying the application

After you have tested and debugged the application on your test server, it is time to deploy the component files to a production server and make the client application files available to the application users. Follow these steps to deploy the application:

Deploying components

For production deployment, you must copy component definitions and implementation files from your test server to the production server, or deploy directly from your IDE another project-based tool. There are several ways to deploy:

Using PowerBuilder

PowerBuilder NVO components can be deployed directly to EAServer from the PowerBuilder IDE, using the Project Painter. See the PowerBuilder Application Techniques manual or online help for more information.

Using jagtool and jagant

jagtool is a command line interface that allows you to automate EAServer development and deployment tasks. jagant allows you to run the same tasks from Jakarta Ant build scripts. For more information, see Chapter 12, “Using jagtool and jagant,” in the EAServer System Administration Guide.

Using the Synchronize feature

EAServer Manager’s Synchronize feature allows you to replicate packages, components, connection cache definitions, and other configuration information from one server to another. Though this feature is intended primarily for synchronizing servers within a cluster, it is a convenient and quick way to replicate the server-side of your application from one server to another. Chapter 6, “Clusters and Synchronization,” in the EAServer System Administration Guide describes this feature in detail.

Deploying clients

The client deployment process varies depending on what type of clients your application uses.

Java clients

To deploy a Java applet, you must create an HTML page that loads the applet. To deploy a Java application, you must supply all classes required by your application to end users for installation on their machines. See “Deploying and running Java clients” for complete instructions.

ActiveX clients

To deploy ActiveX clients, you must install the EAServer ActiveX proxy on client workstations and register the proxy interfaces in the COM Automation Server Registry. See “Deploy the ActiveX client” for more information.

C++ clients

To deploy C++ clients, you must copy the EAServer C++ client runtime libraries to the client machine and configure a few environment variables. See “Deploying C++ clients” for more information.

PowerBuilder clients

PowerBuilder provides a variety of options for deploying applications. You can build an executable file and use the PowerBuilder Runtime Packager to package it with the PowerBuilder VM and other required files. You can also deploy a Web site that uses 4GL Web pages to access EAServer components. See the PowerBuilder Application Techniques and Working with Web and JSP Targets manuals for more information.