The PowerBuilder window plug-in displays a PowerBuilder child window inside a fixed space reserved on the Web page. The user can interact with the controls on the page, and the PowerBuilder scripts for the window and its controls can execute any PowerBuilder code. When the user switches to another Web page, the PowerBuilder window is closed and the PowerBuilder DLLs are unloaded from memory.
You include the plug-in on an HTML page using the HTML Embed element. The Embed element names one or more PBDs that contain PowerBuilder objects and the name of the child window object that is displayed on the page.
The PowerBuilder window plug-in implements the Netscape plug-in API and requires a browser that supports this API (for information, see “Supported browsers”.)
Table 33-1 describes in detail what happens between the client and server when the user views an HTML document with a PowerBuilder window plug-in:
Step |
What the client does |
How the server responds |
|---|---|---|
1 |
The Web browser requests the HTML document from the server |
The server sends a header identifying the document’s MIME type (text/html) |
2 |
The browser receives the MIME type and prepares to receive an HTML document |
The server sends the HTML document |
3 |
The browser receives the HTML document and displays it |
— |
4 |
The browser recognizes the Embed element, reserves space for the plug-in on the page, and requests the PBD file from the server |
The server sends a header identifying the PBD’s MIME type, which can be one of the following: |
5 |
The browser receives the MIME type and prepares to receive a PBD file |
The server sends the PBD file |
6 |
The browser receives the PBD file |
— |
7 |
The browser searches its Plugins directory for the DLL that corresponds to the MIME type (see server step 4) |
— |
8 |
The browser loads the plug-in DLL |
— |
9 |
The plug-in looks for and loads the PowerBuilder deployment DLLs |
— |
10 |
If the Embed element includes LIBRARY attributes, then the client requests the specified PBD files |
The server sends a header identifying the PBD’s MIME type (see server step 4) |
11 |
The browser receives the MIME type and prepares to receive additional PBD files |
The server sends the PBD file |
12 |
PowerBuilder displays the child window specified in the Embed element |
— |
13 |
The child window executes its Open script |
— |
14 |
If a script calls the CommandParm function, PowerBuilder queries the browser for the value of the COMMANDPARM attribute in the Embed element |
— |
The PowerBuilder window plug-in uses the PowerBuilder runtime DLLs as well as the plug-in DLL to provide a full range of PowerBuilder functionality.
Each client that will browse pages containing PowerBuilder window plug-ins needs supporting software installed on the local machine:
PowerBuilder runtime DLLs
Window plug-in DLL, placed in the Web browser’s Plugins directory
The PowerBuilder window plug-in is especially useful in an intranet application where you have control over the setup of client machines.
For details about setting up client machines on each supported platform, see “Setting up users’ workstations”.
The name of the PowerBuilder window plug-in DLL depends on whether you are using the standard or secure version:
Component |
Name |
|---|---|
Standard PowerBuilder window plug-in |
NPPBA105.DLL |
Secure PowerBuilder window plug-in |
NPPBS105.DLL |
