A5 xbasic code working in Development Server but no IIS

[jwilliamson]

Hello All,

I had this logout code working successfully on my development machine using the alpha development server but when I publish IIS the span does not display. Is there are problem with writing custom xbasic code in free form sections using IIS? This code rests in the free form section above a grid component. The logo displays fine and if I put text after the closing %> it works as well. I'm guessing I'm going about something the wrong way.

<img id="headerlogo" style="WIDTH: 200px" src="optimized_logo.png">
<%A5
dim cCurrentUser as c = ''
if a5ws_getcurrentuser() <> ""
	cCurrentUser = a5ws_getcurrentuser()
?"<span class='login-logout'>Logged in as " + cCurrentUser + " | <a href=\"Logout.a5w\" class='RwwPortalV1Link'>Logout</a></span>"
end if
%>

[JerryBrightbill]

Re: A5 xbasic code working in Deveopment Server but no IIS

Problems with differences in behavior between the Alpha server and IIS should be sent in as a bug report.

In this case, there is a slight bug with a simple solution.

Functions such as a5ws_getCurrentUser() were designed for the Alpha server, but normally should map correctly in IIS unless you are running a very old build. In this case, there appears to be a timing issue in the mapping when run inside of a component.

The preferred method in IIS to get the current user is Context.Security.CurrentUser. The Context.Security methods will also work on the Alpha Server. Info on Context methods and properties can be found at

http://downloads.alphasoftware.com/a...t/context.html

if you change your code to

dim cCurrentUser as c = ''
cCurrentUser = Context.Security.CurrentUser
if cCurrentUser <>

it will work inside of a component in both IIS and the Alpha Server

[RichCPT]

Re: A5 xbasic code working in Deveopment Server but no IIS

Jerry, isn't there a migration tool you have that converts the xbasic to JavaScript which can then be tweaked by the developer if the conversion isn't 100% ? And wouldn't that mean that %A5 code blocks would be wrapped in a different block designator?

I had thought from the 2014 DevCon that all XBasic code was going to need converting to JavaScript prior to running it under IIS. That way if the code was already in JS then the server wouldn't have to waste time always retranslating.

[Lenny Forziati]

Re: A5 xbasic code working in Development Server but no IIS

Xbasic is not converted to JavaScript to run under IIS. The Alpha Anywhere Application Server for IIS enables IIS to execute the existing Xbasic code.

[Steve Workings]

Re: A5 xbasic code working in Development Server but no IIS

I may have this issue as well as I have a lot of custom security coding that makes use of the A5WS_() functions. So it seems I need to review and begin upgrading my code. I can't wait until the day we move to IIS and then just switch code, but would prefer to be able to do something like this:

if Version_is_IIS then
  cCurrentUser = Context.Security.CurrentUser
else
  cCurrentUser = a5ws_getcurrentuser()
end if

Is there something available in IIS and non-IIS deployments that I can use for the "Version_is_IIS" value above? Or some variation on this?

[JerryBrightbill]

Re: A5 xbasic code working in Development Server but no IIS

If you check in the link provided for the IIS Context documentation, there is a property Context.HostContextName. As indicated in the document it "contains the name of the platform on which the code is running. This will be "IIS" when running on IIS and will be "Alpha Five Web Server" when running on the stand-alone server."

If you plan to deploy to IIS and there is an IIS method such as Context.Security.CurrentUser, there is no reason to the check the server version, as all Context.Security methods will map to the proper xbasic methods when run on the Alpha Server. The only reason to check for the host is in a condition where you need to take a different code path

[jwilliamson]

Re: A5 xbasic code working in Deveopment Server but no IIS

Thanks for your quick response Jerry. Just tried that out and it worked. I would have spent a lot of time banging my head against the wall trying to get that work on my own. Just out of curiosity, is there a list of other xbasic functions that are deprecated in IIS?

[JerryBrightbill]

Re: A5 xbasic code working in Development Server but no IIS

The problem in your case is actually a bug we are working on. All security xbasic functions will run in IIS, but a couple reference values that don't exist in IIS, so they will give unexpected results.

For example, the IIS security doesn't use tokens (guid), so a function such as "a5ws_get_guid_from_group(GroupName)" will just return the group name. Also, the security in IIS doesn't support the legacy 'ulink' security field, so any returned ulink value will be empty, and "a5ws_get_guid_from_ulink(ulink)" will return the passed in value.

[JerryBrightbill]

Re: A5 xbasic code working in Development Server but no IIS

The problem with xbasic security functions not working in a component freeform in IIS has been found and fixed. The fix will be in the next pre-release build. Pre-release builds can be found at

http://downloads.alphasoftware.com/A...easenotes.html

[jwilliamson]

Re: A5 xbasic code working in Development Server but no IIS

Jerry,

I just had my coworkers test a site I was working on and the problem that most experienced was when clicking logout the browser hangs and the user is not logged out. Do you know why this may be? I am now using:
cCurrentUser = Context.Security.CurrentUser