5.1 What Is a Plug-in?

A plug-in is an application that extends the built-in capabilities of a Web browser. Plug-ins allow you to view, play, hear, modify, or execute a file over the Internet without opening and running it under a separate application. Because it works with existing applications, the plug-in is an easy way for you to deploy your applications on the Internet or in an intranet or extranet. Perhaps your corporation has employees or distributors dispersed throughout a region. The ACUCOBOL-GT Web Plug-in can give these remote users access to sales and inventory applications, and the ability to read and write data across the Internet.

Acucorp's plug-in is a special 32-bit version of the ACUCOBOL-GT runtime designed to run an application that makes use of AcuServer or AcuConnect on the data or application host. It takes your existing COBOL applications and quickly makes them accessible via any Windows-based browser that supports Netscape plug-ins. The ACUCOBOL-GT plug-in runs on 32-bit Windows machines, but can access files or run programs on UNIX and other platforms using AcuServer and AcuConnect.

Important: Both Netscape and versions 5.5, Service Pack 1 and earlier of Microsoft Internet Explorer support the ACUCOBOL-GT Web Plug-in. Effective with version 5.5, Service Pack 2, Internet Explorer no longer supports Netscape-style plug-ins.

The plug-in can be downloaded from Acucorp's Web site, "www.acucorp.com," making it easily accessible to end users. The capabilities of the plug-in depend on its ability to locate a runtime license file either locally or on the AcuServer server. If a runtime license file is found and available, the plug-in has all the capabilities of a standard ACUCOBOL-GT runtime. If a license file is not found, or if the maximum limit allowed by the runtime license has been reached, the plug-in runs in a restricted mode. Refer to section 5.8 Licensing Considerations for specific terms and conditions.

Note: Version 5.2 of the plug-in is designed for use with technologies from the extend5 family of solutions.

The ACUCOBOL-GT plug-in can execute COBOL objects in one of two ways:

Inside the user's Web browser - In this case, your COBOL program starts inside the user's browser window, making all of the ordinary functions of the browser menu available to your user as well as the functions of your COBOL program. Your application has access to library routines that can be used to communicate with the browser, and users have access to functions like Forward, Back, and Search. Please note that applications running inside a browser window cannot display a main window menu bar as you or your users might expect. This is a Microsoft child window restriction. You can, however, program your application's menu functions to be accessed from a toolbar or a pop-up menu that is activated with the right mouse button.
In a separate application window - In this case, your COBOL program starts in a window separate from the browser, making it look the same as it would if it were launched locally. All the functions of your original program are available to users, including a main window menu bar. Users can access functions like Forward, Back, and Search simply by activating the browser window. However, your program cannot access the library routines used to communicate with the browser. In this mode, you may embed several COBOL programs in a single Web page or Web site. Each will run in a separate runtime instance on the client machine.

How and where your program starts depends on how you include it on your Web site. Please refer to section 5.5 Including Your COBOL Application in the Web Site for details.