fglwebrun

fglwebrun - run GBC web apps from the command line

Motivation

Are you tired of writing .xcf files and starting httpdispatch on the command line ? Tired of renamed options in as.xcf/appname.xcf when the GAS version changes ?

Then fglwebrun is the right tool for you. It is (almost) as easy as

$ fglrun prog arg1 arg2

, just call your program with

$ fglwebrun prog arg1 arg2

Prerequisites: FGL+GAS >=2.41

The FGLASDIR environment variable for the GAS install location needs to be set. GBC is found in $FGLGBCDIR.

For GAS < 3.0 GWC HTML5 is started.

From GAS >= 3.0 GBC >=1.20 needs to be installed (assuming GBC in $FGLASDIR/web/gbc-js).

Since GAS3.10 GBC is also searched in $FGLDIR/web_utilities/gbc/gbc

How it works

1. fglwebrun creates an xcf file with a copy of the current environment and adds also program arguments if the invocation was with arguments.
2. fglwebrun checks httpdispatch on port 6395 ( the default GAS port is 6394 ). If it is not up and running it starts it on demand (with the option to output on stdout)
3. It opens your default browser pointing to the suitable URL for the created xcf: voila, you should see the app, and DISPLAY statements appear on stdout like via GDC.
4. For all GAS >= 3.0 the httpdispatch program is terminated if it doesn't have active sessions/GUI programs anymore (auto close similar to GDC's -X command line switch).

Installation

You don't necessarily need to install fglwebrun. If you did check out this repository you can call

$ <path_to_this_repository>/fglwebrun <yourprogram> ?arg? ?arg?

and it uses the fglcomp/fglrun in your PATH to compile and run fglwebrun. Of course you can add also <path_to_this_repository> in your PATH .

Environment Variables

BROWSER- override the default browser

Possible values

• chrome - launches Chrome
• firefox - launches Firefox
• edge - launches Microsoft-Edge (Windows only)
• safari - launches Microsoft-Edge (Mac only)
• none - use this when logged in via ssh to only start the GAS, create the .xcf and print the URL (the URL can be pasted into your local browser)
• gdc - use this when logged in via ssh and FGLSERVER is pointing to your desktop GDC (can be a port forwarded FGLSERVER)

If you use another value for BROWSER then fglwebrun uses this value as executable to start the application URL.

Example on Mac running the app with Google Chrome:

$ BROWSER="chrome" fglwebrun prog

Example if logged in remote and FGLSERVER is pointing to a GDC on your desk, fglwebrun calls in this case fglwebrungdc which in turn uses the "standard","execute" frontcall to invoke the browser on the dektop with the URL pointing to the remote GAS.

$ BROWSER="gdc" fglwebrun prog

FGLGBCDIR- sets a custom GBC directory with your customization

Example with a specific GBC directory:

$ FGLGBCDIR=/Users/leo/gbc-1.00.43/dist/customization/mygbc fglwebrun prog

By default the GBC in $FGLDIR/web_utilities/gbc is taken

GASPORT- sets a custom port the GAS is listening on

By default fglwebrun starts at the port 6365 to look for a GAS. If a connect on that port is possible and GAS answers: port taken. If no connect is possible , GAS is invoked with this port. If a port is already bound and no GAS is listening on that port, fglwebrun increases the port number and checks the next port and so forth. If the GASPORT is set, only that port is probed and fglwebrun terminates if GAS does not/cannot run on that port.

FGLCOMPUTER- override the default browser hostname

On Unix (Linux/Mac) fglwebrun uses the hostname command to deduce the host GAS is running on. Windows : localhost for now. If you want to make a port forwarding in the remote login case you might want to set it to localhost

$ ssh -L 6395:localhost:6395
$ GASPORT=6395 FGLCOMPUTER=localhost BROWSER=gdc fglwebrun demo

HTML5- enable the GWC HTML5 theme

On GAS versions < 3.0 this is the default For GAS >= 3.0 you need to set this to 1 if you want the older web client

$ HTML5=1 fglwebrun prog

FILTER- override the GAS categories_filter option

This is for finding GAS problems default is PROCESS, other possible values are ALL and ERROR and DEBUG, see the GAS manual for all values.

Example enabling all log output of GAS

$ FILTER=ALL fglwebrun prog

VERBOSE- produces lots of output

$ VERBOSE=1 fglwebrun prog

GDC- runs the program with GDC

Is more internal for GDC developers. It's an easy way to run/debug the GDC with a Genero program via http and GAS. Example running the progam with GDC

$ GDC=1 fglwebrun prog

Connects to a running GDC instance by inspecting FGLSERVER

$ GDC=/Users/leo/Applications/gdc fglwebrun prog

If the GDC environment variable contains a valid path name to GDC , GDC is started and runs the program

NO_AUTOCLOSE - switches off the auto close mechanism in case of problems with the auto close.

$ NO_AUTOCLOSE=1 fglwebrun prog

GBCQUERY - adds GBC specific query parameters to the URL fglwebrun creates.

$ GBCQUERY="debugmode=1&contextmenu=1" fglwebrun prog

(windows)

>set GBCQUERY=debugmode=1^&contextmenu=1&&fglwebrun prog

See also the GBC documentation.

Known problems

If httpdispatch was started in the current terminal it may occasionally pollute this terminal with unwanted output even if the started app did already terminate. By default fglwebrun spawns a process to check active GAS sessions (fglwebrunwatch) and terminates the GAS if there are no more active sessions (the equivalent to a GDC started with -X). This doesn't apply if NO_AUTOCLOSE is set or the BROWSER is set to none. In this case either kill httpdispatch manually or just change the terminal once GAS is up and running, another invocation of fglwebrun will take the same GAS.