Chapter 2 Getting Started with PowerDynamo

Viewing template output in a browser

You can access a PowerDynamo Web site in several ways:

During development, you can access the site locally (on the same machine) or across a client/server connection (on the same machine) using Sybase Central.
You can access the site locally using a Web client and the PowerDynamo Personal Web Server.
You can access the site across the Internet or other network from any browser or Web client, using the Personal Web Server as the Web server for the site.
You can access the site across the Internet or other network from a Web client, using a third party Web server and a PowerDynamo Application server to link the PowerDynamo Web site to the Web server.

In previous tutorials, we have been using Sybase Central to access the site locally. In this tutorial we first use a Web browser and the Personal Web Server to access the site locally, and then use a Web browser and the Personal Web Server to access the site across a local-area network.

Browser and TCP/IP required You must have a Web browser or other Web client to run this tutorial.

Web browsers require a TCP/IP protocol stack to communicate with a Web server, even if the server is on the same machine and there is no intervening network. You must have TCP/IP installed to use PowerDynamo.

Accessing the Web site locally

Web clients generally access data across the Internet or other network. They exchange information with a Web server, which relays the information in the addressed document to the Web client. In this tutorial, the Web server is on the same computer as the browser or other Web client.

To access data in the PowerDynamo sample Web site from a browser or other Web client:

Start the Personal Web Server.
- Open the Utilities folder in the left pane of Sybase Central.
- Double-click the Personal Web Server icon in the right pane of Sybase Central.
- The Personal Web Server will be displayed as a small "tray icon" at the opposite end of the taskbar from the Start menu when it is running.
The software installation configures the Personal Web Server to access the PowerDynamo sample Web site, so that no further configuration is needed.
Start your browser or other Web client.
Type the following URL into the address field of your browser or Web client:
```
http://localhost/Site/products.stm
```
The products template output, including the results of a query, is processed by the Web server and displayed in your browser.

Notes

The http:// part of the URL defines the protocol to use when exchanging information.
The localhost part of the URL directs the Web client to access data from a Web server on the local machine. In our case, this Web server is the PowerDynamo Personal Web Server.
If you are not connected to a network, localhost may not be recognized. If this is the case, you can either:
- Substitute localhost with your machine's IP address, or
- Modify your hosts file to map the host name localhost to the 127.0.0.1 address.
  127.0.0.1 localhost
The Site part of the URL directs the Personal Web Server to access data in a PowerDynamo Web according to the information specified for the "Site" mapping. For more information about mappings, see "Configuring Web sites".
products.stm directs the Personal Web Server to access the products.stm template from the Web site, process it, and return the output to the browser.

Accessing the Web site over a network

Although the Personal Web Server is designed primarily for testing and development work, and for same-machine (local) access to Web data, it can be used as a normal Web server and accessed from other machines on a local network or over the Internet.

With its small footprint, and its simplicity, the Personal Web Server is suited for use for an Intranet site server for workgroups. Workgroups can use Intranet sites as a place to share information. If the workgroup grows to the point that the 10 connection limit of the Personal Web Server is no longer sufficient, a third party web server should be used.

This tutorial shows how to access Web information on a Personal Web Server across a local-area TCP/IP network.

Required facilities: You require a local-area TCP/IP network and a Web browser to follow this tutorial.

To access Web information on a Personal Web Server across a network:

Ensure your Personal Web Server is running (there should be a small "tray icon" at the opposite end of the taskbar from the Start menu if the Personal Web Server is running).
Take note of the IP address or the name of the machine on which the Personal Web Server is running. A typical IP address is of the following form: 123.45.67.220. If you are using domain name services, you can use the machine name instead of the TCP/IP address.
Start a Web browser on another machine on the network.
Enter the following URL in the browser:
```
http://ip-number/Site/products.stm
```
or
```
http://machine name/Site/products.stm
```
The products template output, including the results of a query, is processed by the Personal Web Server and relayed across the network to be displayed in your browser.

Notes

The ip-number part of the URL directs the Web client to access data from a Web server on the specified machine. If you are using network directory services, you could use the machine name instead of the IP address.
The Site part of the URL directs the Personal Web Server to access data in a PowerDynamo Web site according to the information specified for the "Site" mapping.
For more information about mappings, see "Configuring Web sites".

products.stm directs the Personal web Server to access the products.stm template from the Web site, process it, and return the output across the network to the browser.