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Application page

The Application page > Basic tab has the following settings:


Option or option group

What you specify

App name

Specify a name for the application. The application name is mainly used in the following places:

  • The name of the Cloud App launcher EXE file.

  • The default App shortcut name.

  • The automatically generated directory name of Cloud App launcher files after Build and Deploy.

    When starting the Cloud App launcher through the URL, the name is used in the URL.

  • The generated C# solution.

    The application name will appear in UserExtensions\AppConfig\Applications.json. (It will appear in the PowerServer_ApplicationConfig table if you store the configuration in the database instead of the file).

PBR file name

(Optional) Specify a PowerBuilder resource file (PBR) for your application if you dynamically reference resources (such as bitmaps and icons) in your scripts and you want the resources included in the application instead of having to distribute the resources separately.

You can type the name of a PBR file in the box or click the button next to the box to browse your directories for the PBR file you want to include. The PBR file as well as the resources it references must reside in the application directory or subdirectory; and only relative paths of the PBR file and the resources will be accepted.

For more about PBRs, see Distributing resources in PowerBuilder User Guide.

"App shortcut" group

You can specify whether to create shortcuts for:

  • Desktop -- Specify whether to create an application shortcut icon on the client desktop.

  • Start menu -- Specify whether to create an application start shortcut menu in the Windows start menu.

  • App uninstall -- Specify whether to create an application uninstall shortcut menu in the Windows start menu.

You can also customize the app shortcut name and the shortcut icon.

  • Shortcut name -- Specify the shortcut name on the client desktop. The default shortcut name is the same as the default app name. To customize the app shortcut name after deployment, refer to Customize the app shortcut.

  • Shortcut icon -- Specify the shortcut icon on the client desktop. The icon file must be added to External Files first before it can be selected here, and the image resolutions should be 16*16 pixels, 48*48 pixels or 256*256 pixels. It is recommended that the icon file is added to Files preloaded in uncompressed format when added to External Files, so that it can be deployed as a single file which can be replaced conveniently via CustomizeDeploy.dll. Refer to Customize the app shortcut for more details.

"External files" group

Specify the custom user external files and/or the resource files that are referenced in the PowerScript. Make sure all these files are placed in the same folder or sub-folder of the application target (.pbt) file.

The custom user external files may include the following:

  • INI files (including pb.ini, pblab.ini, pbodb.ini etc.)

  • DLL/OCX files (requiring no administrator rights to register)

  • XML files or image files used by the UI theme or external functions

  • text files, PDF files or any other files used by the external function

Files preloaded as compressed packages and Files preloaded in uncompressed format

The custom user external files will be downloaded from the server before the application starts. It is recommended that you deploy the files which are large or stay unchanged most of the time (such as UI theme files) as one compressed package, so that it can be transferred faster; and deploy the files which may be modified (hence downloaded) frequently as individual files, or deploy them as a separate package because they need to be downloaded frequently.

  • To deploy files (such as UI theme files) as one compressed package, select Files preloaded as compressed packages from the list box, then click Create Package to create a package, and then click Add Folder or Add Files to add the folder or files under this package.

  • To deploy files (such as INI files) as individual files, select Files preloaded in uncompressed format from the list box, and then click Add Folder or Add Files to add the folder or files under it.

Images/videos dynamically loaded

The resource files (such as images, videos etc.) are downloaded from the server at the moment when they are used by the application. You can select Images/videos dynamically loaded and then click Add Folder or Add Files to add the folder or files under it.

Note

1) After these files are added to External Files, they will be deployed together with the other application files to the server. If these files are changed later, you must re-deploy the application, or replace these files on the server using the CustomizeDeploy.dll tool without needing to deploy the application again. For more information, refer to Change the deployed app using commands.

2) When external files are deployed to the server, they are appended with the file extension ".zip", but they are not compressed files (the only exception is package). For example, if apisetup.ini is selected in the External Files tab, it will be deployed as apisetup.ini.zip to the server, however, apisetup.ini.zip is not a compressed file and it can be directly opened in a text editor just like apisetup.ini.

3) If you have added or removed files from the folder after it is added to External Files, the file list will not be automatically refreshed, thus, you may be prompted for missing files during deployment. In this case, you can remove the folder and then add it back again to External Files, in order to correctly refresh the file list.

DLL & OCX Registration

If the application uses DLL/OCX files and if these DLL/OCX files must be registered before use, you can choose the following methods to register the files:

  • Method 1: select the DLL/OCX files in the DLL & OCX Registration dialog (as shown in the figure below). The file with its check box selected will be registered by Regsvr32 or Regasm automatically before the application starts.

    However, if the DLL/OCX files cannot be registered by Regsvr32 or Regasm, or if they need to be registered using administrator rights, then use method 2 instead.

  • Method 2: write scripts to register the DLL/OCX files before the application starts, and/or input the registration scripts in Preload Event in the PowerServer Project painter > Application page > Advanced tab.

Note

1) For DLL/OCX files that do not need to be registered or those that will be registered by scripts, please do not select them in the DLL & OCX Registration dialog, because unnecessary registration will affect the app startup performance.

2) PowerServer itself does not require any DLL/OCX file registration, please select and register only those DLL/OCX files that are required by the application.


INI Configuration

When the application is updated, the INI file can be updated with the specified strategy. Click the INI Configuration button and then select one or more INI files and configure the strategy for them at one time; or select and configure for the INI file one by one.

  • Overwrite update -- The INI file on the client will be updated if the INI file downloaded from the server has been updated, and changes made to the local INI file will be lost.

  • Merge update -- The INI file on the client will be merged with the INI file downloaded from the server, so changes made to the local INI file will be preserved and merged into the INI file downloaded from the server. But notice that any setting that exists in the local INI file but not in the downloaded INI file will be removed.

  • Do not update -- Once the INI file is downloaded to the client, it shall never be updated with the INI file downloaded from the server.

Note

The external files cannot contain any file that has the same name as the application, or the PBD or p-code file to be generated, otherwise duplicate name error occurs.

For example, [appname].exe, [appname].xml, [appname].manifest file etc. cannot be added to External Files.

For another example, test.pbl will be deployed as test.pbd, therefore, test.pbd cannot be added to External Files.


The Application page > Advanced tab has the following settings:


Option group

What you specify

Runtime files

Select the runtime files according to the features used in the application. The runtime files will be downloaded from the server to the client, for the application to run.

You can select Typical to automatically select all files (except the WebBrowser control), or select Custom to select files manually.

The deployment tool does not actually deploy the files, instead it notifies the application to download such files (corresponding to the runtime version displayed) from the server directly, therefore, you will need to make sure the corresponding version of PowerBuilder Runtime is uploaded to the server when you upload the Cloud App Launcher to the server (view detailed instructions).

When the project is opened, if the runtime version configured in the System Options dialog (Tools > System Options) is different from the runtime version last saved with the project, they both will be displayed (as shown below); and then when the project is saved, the runtime version in the System Options dialog (the second text box) will be saved with the project.

"Client app download" group

Specify when to download the application files -- before the application starts or at the moment when they are called by the application at runtime.

If you select "Download the app files as necessary", the following files will be downloaded before the app runs: 1) the PowerBuilder Runtime files, 2) the application executable, and 3) the files you selected to be preloaded in External Files; the other files will be downloaded at the moment they are called by the app.

If you select "Download all the app files at app startup", the runtime files, app executable, the application files, and external files are all downloaded at the startup, except for the image files that are set to be dynamically loaded in the External Files settings.


"Client app download" group > Show the loading animation before the app runs

Specify whether to show an animation (as shown below) when the application prepares for startup. The animation will disappear when the application's first window displays.

This option should not be selected if the application starts with no user interface; otherwise the animation will not disappear.

You can deploy your own animation to replace the default animation (as shown above). For detailed steps, refer to Customize the app entry page.


"Preload event" group

(Optional) Specify the commands that will be executed immediately after files are downloaded and before the application starts. For example, you can specify commands to register DLL/OCX files that cannot be registered by Regsrv32 or Regasm or require administrator rights to register; or any other commands that need to be executed with administrator rights. For another example, if your application contains .NET DLLs which have dependencies on the .NET runtime, you can also create a batch file to check and install the .NET runtime on the client and then assign the batch file in the preload event.

If the commands need to be executed with the administrator rights, you should select the Run as administrator option.

You can specify how often the commands should be executed: if you select "Only when the app first starts or is updated", the commands will be executed for only one time when the application is launched for the first time or when the application is updated; if you select "Every time the app starts", the commands will be executed every time when the application runs.

The commands can be any Windows commands or user-defined commands.

For example, suppose there is a DLL file from the application that needs to be registered on the client, you can enter the following commands: 

cd /d "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319"
regasm "%AppData%\Appeon\PBCloud\demo.appeon.com_app1\EncryptDecryptClass.dll" /tlb:testappeon.tlb  /codebase /nologo

Note: As the commands are executed silently, any commands that will pause the execution and wait for user input will cause the application to wait endlessly.


Commandline argument

Specify the command line arguments for the application. The arguments will be directly passed to the application when the application is run. The arguments will be automatically saved and updated to the app startup icon on the desktop and the app shortcut menu in Windows start.

The arguments specified here are static and cannot be modified at runtime. If you want to pass the argument dynamically at runtime, you can specify the argument in the application URL (for example, http://localhost/salesdemo/?arg=1). But note that the arguments appended to the application URL cannot contain special characters such as "?", "#", as they have special meanings in HTML URL; if you want to use these characters in the argument name or value, you can specify them in Commandline argument as static arguments, so that they can be passed to the application directly instead of being sent as part of the URL.

You can also pass arguments to the EXE directly. If there are multiple arguments, please include them in quotation marks or separate them with a delimiter (instead of a space), for example,

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\PBApps\Applications\localhost_<appname>\<appname>.exe "parm1 parm2 parm3"

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\PBApps\Applications\localhost_<appname>\<appname>.exe parm1/parm2/parm3

If the commandline argument is specified on the client, in the URL or desktop shortcut, and if you want to save the argument in pbapp.ini for future access, you can select the "Save the argument(s) in the pbapp.ini file for future access" option. By default, the arguments will not be saved to the pbapp.ini file.



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