PixieLink User Notes

PixieLink 3.0  

1. Introduction 
2. Installation 
3. Terminal Emulator 
4. HTML display 
5. "Field-by-Field" documentation 
6. PixieEngineDirect 

1. Introduction 

PixieLink 3 delivers GUI by using HTML as its advanced terminal formatting language. PixieLink 3 is also a terminal emulator, supporting VT100 with colour extensions, or MM-MON. It auto-detects these 2 protocols. PixieLink 3 is a radical re-think of PixieLink 2 We are dropping the idea of achieving GUI with our own markup language (VBGUI). We are now using the new HTML 4 positioning capabilities instead. 

PixieLink can run web apps. written in the "Field-by-Field" style directly by telnet connection to the database engine without any need for a webserver. This greatly simplifies HTML app. development and debugging. Apps. written the PixieLink way can later be widely broadcast by bringing in a webserver plus our companion product PixieWeb. No change to the application is required to switch between either mode and both can co-exist. 

PixieLink (2-tier) PICK-etc <----> PixieLink 

PixieWeb (3-tier) PICK-etc <----> PixieWeb + WebServer <----> WebBrowser  

2. Installation

Easiest: Open PixieLink.zip with "Winzip" and click the "Install" button Or: Unzip PixieLink.zip, then run "setup.exe". Prerequisites: To use HTML GUI, requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 5/above to be installed. MSIE is part of recent versions of MS Windows and it is a free add-on for Windows 95, 98 and NT4. To use "PixieEngineDirect" connection, requires our PICK-like database engine product "PixieEngine" to be installed.  

3. Terminal Emulator 

Start with Menu: Login, click option New. The most important and mandatory details are at the top of the configuration form: 

• Name for this login (This Setup NAME:) 

• Host Name (MV Server:)

• TCP/IP Port: 

OK button will Log you onto system. Cancel button will exit this process without saving changes.

The following details are optional: 

• Tickle = tick for servers which wait for the client to start the conversation. These are usually proxy servers e.g. hardware boxes translating serial lines to TCP/IP networking. 
• Timeout = how long to wait for server responses. Can be as little as 2 seconds on fast LANs You may need up to 15 seconds on slow dial-up lines. 
• Monitor = tick to switch on a monitor window which captures and can display the raw conversation between PixieLink and its server. Useful for debugging but use of it can slow response on slower machines. 
• TrueColor = tick to use full range of colours for terminals. You would nearly always leave this ticked. Clearing the tick can help with response speed on older slower machines, like less than 166 MHZ. 
• Cr + Lf = tick to send CHAR(13)+CHAR(10) combination on pressing the Enter key. Normally PixieLink sends CHAR(13) only as its (CR) signal. We have found Cr + Lf to be necessary on ULTPLUS engines running on UNIX operating systems. 
• DialogLine = enter a number, usually 23, 24, 25 to give a highlighted display to this line of the screen. This is a highlighter decoration for our own apps, but you may find it useful if your app consistently uses a "Dialog Line" for user interaction. 
• App Off = what a user would normally type to exit an app. App Off Response = what you expect to see when this server or its main app of interest comes to a neat and tidy end. If you fill this in, then PixieLink will recognise this as a disconnect signal and close this session. If in doubt, leave it blank. 
• KeyUp, KeyDown, etc, and F-keys(1-10) = signals for arrow, navigation and function key usage. Leave blank for no effect. For non-printing characters, use CHAR(27) etc. function. NOTE that by default, PixieLink appends a (CR) to all user and scripted DataToSend. F-Keys etc often require this to be suppressed. The suppression code is "{NOCR}" (Don't include the quote marks!). 

PixieLink supports VT100 with colour extensions, and also MM-MON (a.k.a. "Pick PC Monitor"). PixieLink automatically detects and handles both sets of codes including a range of variations and related protocols (e.g. ANSI). If the display is incomplete or distorted, please press SHIFT+F12 to see the diagnostic monitor, a display of the raw conversation. If nothing shown, select Menu:Tools and click option Monitor Activate. Please copy/paste contents of the monitor into an email to us at: john@pixieware.com. If you encounter problems with MM-MON, try changing to VT100. 

4. HTML display 

To get started on seeing the HTML GUI in action with a PICK-etc engine, load the programs FBF.SIMU1, WEBDX and WEBIX, supplied as source code, into your MV engine, then compile and catalog. By our convention we recommend you place them in a file called "BP_PX". Then start FBF.SIMU1 from a PixieLink terminal session. Note that FBF ("Field-by-field") web apps start their conversation with CRT " OK " INPUT sHandshake " OK " is our standard signal to PixieLink to switch modes to HTML. PixieLink (and PixieWeb) respond with a confirmation signal which is handled by the INPUT statement. FBF.SIMU1 is a minimal self-contained program which does not depend on data, i.e. it contains 2 mock records so changes you make will not save. To see more FBF action, download our related product "PixieWeb". It contains an account of test data and more advanced sample programs, plus methods for loading these samples into a variety of PICK-etc engines. 

5. "Field-by-Field" documentation 

Another attraction for us of standardising on HTML, is that the documentation for PixieLink becomes almost identical to that existing for PixieWeb. Included in this package is the "PixieWeb Chapter 7" which covers the "Field-by-Field" way of working. Find it as file "PWDocu7.htm" installed into subfolder "Help". More details on our Website under "PixieWeb". 

6. PixieEngineDirect 

PixieEngine is our MV Engine product to make MySQL, MSSQL, JET or ORACLE act as PICK-etc datastore. For remote PixieEngines, start the socket server "PxEngConsole.exe" and then treat PixieEngine like any other telnet server. For a locally installed PixieEngine, click on "PixieEngineDirect(F11)" or press the F11 key to get a fast-track connection, no setup required.