Other Coding Considerations

When coding for the Web runtime, also consider the following points:

• If you plan to have your application run inside the user's browser window, it cannot display the main window menu barto which you may be accustomed. (This is a Microsoft child window restriction.)

  In this case, you will need to program your application's menu functions to be accessed from a toolbar or a pop-up menu that is activated with the right mouse button.

  You can avoid this restriction by having your application run in its own separate window. You can specify this as a parameter of the <OBJECT> tag or use the AcuEmbedded method supplied with the object interface. For information on these options, see the topics Using the <OBJECT> Tag and Web Runtime Object Interface.

• When running in QUIT-MODE, your program may not accept or display anything after an ACCEPT terminates with the QUIT-MODE exception.

  If your program attempts to accept or display anything, the runtime terminates immediately as if the program has executed a stop run.

• If there is a file in the cache with the same name as your object file, it will be reused rather than downloaded from your Web site. You may need to implement a file naming scheme to prevent this.
• When required, consider how your application will access local resources without affecting end user security.

  for security issues that affect coding. See Security.

• Applications designed for the Web runtime should accommodate situations where a runtime license file cannot be found or the maximum number of allowable connections has been exceeded. In some cases, the application can provide messages that explain why program functions may be restricted. In other cases, the application can prompt users to try to access the server again later. See Licensing Considerations for more information.
• To prevent file I/O restrictions, you may want to design your program in such a way that one of the first activities it performs is to open a file with AcuServer. This enables the program to "check out" or secure a runtime license, thereby ensuring that end users have full access to runtime functions. If a license file is found, the serial number is available in the "SERIAL-NUMBER" field of the SYSTEM-INFORMATION group in "acucobol.def".
• To minimize the amount of setup work required by users, we recommend that you write your application in such a way that resources are always accessed remotely (using AcuConnect and AcuServer). If your application requires access to local resources or local network resources, your users will have to edit the authorization file accordingly. See Editing the authorization file for information on editing this file.
• For security purposes, COBOL programs run in the Web runtime are not permitted to call certain library routines. For a complete list of these routines, see Restricted library routines.