Option 1: Provide remote file access via AcuServer
If you simply want to provide access to remote Vision, relative, and sequential data and object files over the Internet, you can use Acucorp's remote file server, AcuServer, to accomplish your goal. In this scenario, you have your customers or users run your application on their local machines as usual, and you give them access to data, COBOL objects, or both on a remote server using AcuServer. You use a configuration variable, FILE-PREFIX or CODE-PREFIX, to specify the Internet address of your remote data or object files, just as you would if you were specifying any remote pathname for AcuServer. This option requires no special knowledge of the Internet and can be implemented immediately.
Option 2: Set up the ACUCOBOL-GT runtime as an Internet helper application or viewer
If you want customers or users to be able to run your applications by clicking a link on your Web site, one way to accomplish this is to set up the ACUCOBOL-GT runtime as an Internet helper application or viewer.
To do this, you set up a Web page (which is simply an HTML document) with a link to the ACUCOBOL-GT object file to be run.
You then instruct your users to purchase a copy of the ACUCOBOL-GT runtime and install it as a helper application in their browser.
Your users could then launch your application directly from your Web page. The application will run on the local machine as usual, or in combination with programs running remotely on a server machine using AcuConnect for remote application services. You also have choice of where the data resides. Remote data access requires the use of AcuServer remote file services.
Like Option 1, this option takes advantage of existing applications and is easy to implement. You must have some knowledge of HTML or use an HTML authoring tool to create a Web site. Once you set up your Web site and object file link, you're done.
Option 3: Provide runtime services through the ACUCOBOL-GT Web Plug-In
Another way to give customers or users access to your applications on the Web is to provide runtime services through the ACUCOBOL-GT Web Plug-In.
Using this approach, you set up a Web site and embed or link in your ACUCOBOL-GT application. You then instruct your customers or users to license the ACUCOBOL-GT Web Plug-in.
With the plug-in and runtime in place, your customers and users can visit your Web site at any time and launch your application inside the browser window. This gives them all the features and functions of your application, along with the features and functions of the browser.
This option is similar to Option 2 in that it allows users to launch applications from your Web site, and you (the COBOL developer) choose whether the application runs locally on the client machine, remotely on a server machine (using AcuConnect), or some combination of the two.
The main difference is that with this method, the plug-in embeds the main application window in the browser and gives it access to library routines that can be used to communicate with the browser. At your option, you can enhance your COBOL program to give your end user access to other Web pages and the ability to send e-mail messages, conduct Web searches, and execute JavaScript. You determine how much functionality you want to give to your end users, and you code those functions into your application by passing URLs (uniform resource locators) to the Web browser with the W$GETURL library function.
You can also permit end users to access Vision data files on other machines. The machines housing the data must be running AcuServer.
Option 4: Provide remote application access via AcuConnect
If you want local users to be able to launch remote applications over the Internet--exclusive of the World Wide Web and browsers--you can use Acucorp's remote application server, AcuConnect, to accomplish your goal. In this situation, you embed simple COBOL CALLs into a client application and use a configuration file on the client to specify the Internet address of the remote application. Then, when your customers or users run the application on their local machine, AcuConnect automatically CALLs the remote application and runs it on the server. You can combine this option with Option 1 to provide remote file access as well.
Option 5: Create an HTML interface to your application and launch it with a CGI program
Suppose you want customers or users to be able to run your applications by clicking a link on your Web site, but you don't want to require anything special of the user's machine (for instance, you don't want to require the user to have a copy of the ACUCOBOL-GT runtime). In this case, you have the option to create a new interface to your application using HyperText Markup Language. With an HTML interface, your application can be interpreted directly by the user's browser, and the processing logic can remain in COBOL on the Web server.
In this situation, you create your HTML interface using one of many popular HTML authoring tools. Then you write a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) program that can read CGI variables submitted by the client to the server. This program can launch your COBOL application and can be a COBOL program itself. You can write it using ACUCOBOL-GT or any other language you choose. If you write the CGI program in ACUCOBOL-GT, you do not have to UNSTRING the CGI variables in the program, because ACUCOBOL-GT takes care of this through its "external-form" syntax.
After you build an HTML front end and write your CGI program, you set up a Web site with a link to the CGI program. Your customers or users can then visit your Web site and use their browser as the front end for your COBOL application running on the server.
For more information about any of these options, please refer to the separate Acucorp book titled A Programmer's Guide to the Internet.