Manual Configuration of the Web Application Server

The DataFlex Web Application Server depends on the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) for running web applications. For this integration, specific configurations are required on IIS. The installer can automatically install and configure IIS, but sometimes that is not possible or is undesirable. This is why the installer has the option to not install and configure IIS. The steps below describe what is needed to manually install and configure IIS.

If the ‘Do not install & configure IIS’ option is used with the Studio installer, then the Web Application Server components will be installed, but the Windows service is not registered and installed. The step on how to 'Register and run the DataFlex Web Application Server service' describes how this is done manually.

Installation of IIS

The Internet Information Server is available as a Windows feature. By default, this feature is not installed on most versions of Windows. Installing IIS is done from the Windows Features dialog on desktop versions of Windows. On Windows 10, click the Start menu, type ‘turn Windows features on or off’, and press Enter.

In the list of features, find ‘Internet Information Services’. Check this option. By checking this option, the default features of IIS will be checked.

Then expand and find ‘ISAPI Extensions’ under ‘Application Development Features’ and check this option. The ISAPI Extensions feature is required to be able to run DataFlex Web Services. Optionally, one can choose to check the ‘ASP’ option. Classic DataFlex Web Applications use ASP, while modern Web Framework WebApps do not require ASP.

Now click OK, and Windows will start the installation.

To test if IIS is running, open your browser and navigate to http://localhost/. This should display the IIS welcome page.

Register and Run the DataFlex Web Application Server Service

The DataFlex Web Application Server runs as a Windows service. If DataFlex Studio is installed with the choice to not configure IIS, then the DataFlex Web Application Server service will not be registered. Registering the service can be done manually from the command line.

1. Open a command prompt as administrator by pressing the Windows key and typing cmd.
2. Right-click the ‘Command Prompt’ item and select ‘Run as administrator’.

In the command box that appears, navigate to the Bin folder inside the DataFlex installation folder using cd.

Use the following command to register the service:

WebAppServer.exe /service

After it is registered, it can be started using the following command (191 is the DataFlex version):

net start dfwas191

Configure IIS for DataFlex WebApps

Additional configuration is needed on IIS to be able to run DataFlex WebApps. This can be done from the command line using the DfManageVDir utility that is installed with DataFlex. To use the DfManageVDir, open a command prompt as administrator and navigate to the Bin folder inside the DataFlex installation folder (as explained in the ‘Register and Run the DataFlex Web Application Server Service’ section).

To enable the usage of DataFlex Web Services, run:

DfManageVDir.exe add-wso-restriction

To enable the usage of the DataFlex HTTP Handler, run:

DfManageVDir.exe register-http-module

Now IIS is configured to be able to run DataFlex Web Applications. To actually run Web Applications, register them through the Web Application Administrator or from the Studio.

To see more information on the capabilities of DfManageVDir.exe, run:

DfManageVDir.exe /?

Configure the DataFlex Examples

If the option to not install and configure IIS is used during installation, then the web examples (WebOrder & WebOrderMobile) are not registered in IIS as well. This can be done in three ways:

1. In the Studio by using the ‘Register WebApp…’ option of the Tools menu after opening the sample workspace.
2. Using the Web Application Administrator by removing the sample applications and registering them again.
3. Using the DfManageVDir utility to create the virtual directories (including the additional configuration for web services and HTTP Handlers).

To use the DfManageVDir, open a command prompt as administrator and navigate to the Bin folder inside the DataFlex installation folder (as explained in the ‘Register and Run the DataFlex Web Application Server Service’ section).

Register the WebOrder application example using:

DfManageVDir.exe create "" "WebOrder_19_1" "C:\DataFlex 19.1 Examples\WebOrder\AppHTML"

Register the WebOrderMobile application using:

DfManageVDir.exe create "" "WebOrderMobile_19_1" "C:\DataFlex 19.1 Examples\WebOrderMobile\AppHTML"