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3.6 Launching Thin Client Applications from a Web Page

If you want thin client users to launch your application from a Web page, you can do the following:

1. Install your COBOL application on your application server host. This machine must also contain the ACUCOBOL-GT runtime, AcuLaunch, and the other software components listed in section 3.2.1 Server Components Required. Note that your application does not need to reside on the same host as your Web server.

2. Create a thin client command line file that contains all the information needed by the ACUCOBOL-GT Thin Client to launch your application. This file should have an ".atc" or ".acutc" extension. The format of this file is described in the following section.

3. Place the thin client command line file on your Web server and create a link to it from an appropriate Web page. Your users click on this link to launch your thin client application.

4. If any of your users have Netscape browsers, you must configure your Web server to generate an HTTP "Content-type" response header field, which is included with the thin client command line file. This field should contain the MIME type "application/vnd.acucorp.thincommandline". Note that this step is optional if your users are using Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Refer to your Web server documentation for instructions on adding a MIME type.

After you set up your hyperlink, end users who visit your Web page can run the program by clicking on the program's link. The display occurs in an application window outside of the user's browser.

Users can also enter the host name of the application server or an Internet IP address on the command line when they launch the ACUCOBOL-GT Thin Client. Refer to section 4.4, "Launching Programs on the Internet," for more information.

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3.6.1 Thin Client Command Line Files

3.6.2 Using Anchor Tags