May 2008 Archives

IBM introduced Proxy Server in version 6.0.2 of its WebSphere Application Server ND. This can be used as a load-balancer to load-balance user requests to a cluster of LiveCycle ES appserver nodes. In addition, the Proxy server can be configured as a caching proxy to improve performance.

Unlike IBM HTTP Server, the Proxy Server does not require a lot of configuration. There is no HTTP Plugin to configure and to copy to all nodes. All that is needed is that:
1) you create and run a proxy server, and
2) when the LiveCycle EAR files are deployed, you should map them to the proxy_host virtual host.

The following steps apply to WebSphere 6.1.0.15.

Create Proxy Server
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1) Login to the WebSphere Admin Console
2) On the left navigation pane, expand the 'Servers' node
3) Click on 'Proxy Servers'
4) Click the 'New' button
5) Select the node on which you want to run the Proxy Server java process from the dropdownlist of avaiable nodes
6) type in the name of the server (eg: proxy1), click Next
7) uncheck the checkbox for SIP
8) Choose the proxy_server template
9) Click 'Finish' and save the changes

Configure Proxy Server
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1) Click on the Proxy Server you just created
2) In the 'Proxy Settings' section on the right, expand the 'HTTP Proxy Server Settings' node
3) Click on 'Proxy Settings'
4) Check the checkboxes for 'Cache SSL content', 'Cache Aggressively' and 'Cache Dynamic Content' if you desire
5) Save the changes.

For more details, please see Erik Burckart's article in the IBM WebSphere Developer Technical Journal and excerpt from the book WebSphere Application Server: Step by Step.

When deploying LiveCycle EAR files, ensure that you map them to the proxy_host virtual host which has the default port of 80 for HTTP and 443 for HTTPS.

Assuming that the node hosting the proxy server (this can be on the same node as Deployment Manager) is nodeA.company.com, the URL for the LiveCycle AdminUI would be this:
http://nodeA.company.com/adminui

Adobe Acrobat and Reader (version 8) now have built-in support for GPU acceleration which will improve the viewing performance of a PDF document on a desktop client. Not all video cards are supported. Please also see article from NVIDIA.

GPU-Z is a free utility that can help you determine your video card type.

The "Countries" custom drop-down list object in the Custom object library in Designer only has 55 countries listed. With well over a hundred missing I thought it would be worth sharing the complete list that I had to put together for a recent project. This includes the complete UN list of countries as well as the States & Provinces in North America. Thanks to http://openconcept.ca/blog/mgifford/text_list_all_countries for the text list.

Download the sample below and then open with Designer. Once loaded, drag each of the objects from the PDF into the Custom Object Library. Once there, you will be able to drag and drop these on to any of your forms. Better yet, create Form Fragments so if any changes occur you only have to update the data in one place.