WebSTAR WebObjects Adaptor

The WebSTAR WebObjects Adapter is used to connect a WebSTAR Web server to a WebObjects executable application. The WebObjects Adapter acts like a "traffic cop" routing requests to WebObjects executable applications running on other servers.

WebSTAR does not install the WebSTAR WebObjects Adaptor Plug-Ins by default. Use the WebSTAR Server Suite Installer to custom install the version 3 or 4 Adaptor, depending on your needs. Neither version requires any additional RAM.

The WebObjects Adaptor Plug-In is always enabled when it is installed.

WebObjects can provide access to large databases, including legacy systems, mainframes and SQL interfaces, and it can do anything from general CGI processing to handling commerce transactions.

WebObjects executables are currently supported on the following systems: Solaris, Windows NT, HP-UX, and Mac OS X server. WebObjects executables cannot be run on a Mac OS 8.x server, although WebSTAR running on a Macintosh can provide the interface to browsers via the Web.

For information on WebObjects, see

http://www.apple.com/webobjects/

WebObjects Versions and Upgrading

WebSTAR WebObjects Adaptors come in two versions, to go with WebObjects 3 or 4. Be sure to install the WebSTAR WebObjects Adaptor that corresponds to the version of WebObjects you are running.

How the WebObjects Adaptor Works

At initialization time, the WebObjects Plug-In finds the configuration file ( WebObjects.conf ) in the Plug-Ins folder, and reads it into memory. This is the standard file used by all versions of WebObjects, and it must go in the Plug-Ins folder.

All WebObjects URLs will be passed to Web Objects. The requests include the following string:

/cgi-bin/WebObjects/

Any URL matching that string will be served as a WebObjects request.

A WebObjects instance is much like a DNS server's round-robin entry. It defines what goes where, meaning that the first request to a certain application can go to instance #1 and the second request can go to instance #2. This allows you to easily distribute the load to a particular WebObjects executables across several servers.

WebObjects Configuration

Entries in the WebObjects Configuration ( WebObjects.conf ) file look like this:

 

App1:1@WOServer1 2000 App1:2@WOServer2 2000 App2:5@WOServer1 2010 App3:6@WOServer3 2020

"App1 " is replaced with the name of the WebObjects executable application.
The ":1 " or ":2 " is used to tell what instance of the application to use (see below).
The "@ " indicates that the application resides "at" the following server.
"WOServer " is the name of the server, though it can also be an IP address.
The "2000 " and "2010 " is the port number that the WebObjects executable is running on.

An example entry might look like:

 

taxform:1@tax.domain.com
 2000taxform:2@www.domain.com
 2000 calc:5@test.domain.com
 2010