by Unlicensed user StevenP
The long awaited H5 Clarion-for-web-apps template are here. They arrived, not with a big announcement, but by someone discovering a series of four videos on YouTube (a later email from SoftVelocity had a similar link to the SV site).
H5 was supposed to combine strengths the original Internet Connect product (ease of adding a web UI) with the best of Web Builder (no massive download of Java classes). A new app Broker would run as a service (combining the original EXE and ISAPI brokers). And it would use some of the more fashionable technologies (JQuery, AJAX, etc.)
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Okay, then, with the broker installed and tested, the first question everyone had is exactly the same as it was with the original CWIC in 1998/9: Is it "just" a matter of adding a template?
Figure 3: Adding (the correct) Global Extension
(Beware, you may still have the "old" SV WEB Extension Template. This one is at the very end of the "Select Extension" list.)
Figure 4: The installed Extension
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Compile and distribute the files as instructed in the video (I didn't take notes and, so, did very unpleasant things to the pooch; that's why I started by recommending you take notes). Your EXE and any required DLLs (including skeleton.dll, which Clarion will copy into your output directory), including Clarion DLLs, go to \EXEC or to a directory under \EXEC. There is also a <AppName>_Global.js file generated into your app directory. Copy it to \PUBLIC (that's the step I missed; I copied it to \EXEC - but not until I remembered ... without , it your app may very well run, mine did, but not run correctly and you'll blame H5; I did).
Run the app, in Windows, from \EXEC to be 100% that you've copied everything.
Figure 5: Running in Windows to verify
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Now open a browser and call your app.
Figure 6: Call in a browser (note syntax)
And, lo and behold!
Figure 7: App running in browser
And, does the Standard date show after entering a date (in m/dd/yy format) and pressing TAB? Is the ACCEPTED embed triggered?
Figure 8. After pressing tab the embedded code executes
And, yes, it will time out in about 10 minutes (the template default).
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For my second H5 experiment, I selected a real monster, an app with a single window (presentation layer) and a DLL (where all the work is done - it's proprietary, so no screen shots). The DLL calls several other DLLs (data, utilities, etc., total is one EXE and four DLLs plus Clarion DLLs). A real monster, right? Yeah, sure.
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Aesthetics were not great but almost everything worked as expected. What didn't work? Two List Controls "From" a hand coded queue. These are probably interpreted as HTML <Select>s, which support only one column and displayed as drop downs. Changing the Class used by the control would probably fix it up.
Conclusion
There may not be a tutorial, but the initial videos provide an alternative. Use the school app to H5-ify for yourself. This will allow you to see any difference.
H5 is a worthy successor to IC/WB. The AppBroker is definitely improved. Those of you already (or still) using IC/WB can probably apply almost all of what you already know. And, there are alternate themes ut out there for the downloading.
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