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Running an Application Server

You should now have an executable file in your project directory. This executable can be ran from the command line. You must specify a port when running this application server by using the -port command line option. An example of running an application server is:

tut2.exe -port 8888

This will start the tut2.CGI application server and it will listen to port 8888 for processing requests.

Once the application server is running you should be able to test your application just like a CGI application (Pressing the Test button). Note that you may have to clear your browser's cache to be sure your are running against an Application server and not a CGI.

If you need to rebuild your project after making changes you must kill the application server before re-linking and start it again after linking. You do not have to stop and start your Netscape server. You can use the Sapphire Application Manager Console (see below) to shutdown an application server gracefully.

Troubleshooting Application Server Configuration

While trying to get an application server configured you can run into some error messages. Most of these errors can be solved by simple configuration changes. Below are common error messages and solutions to fix these problems. Note that the error message may not be exactly what is shown below. The errors below will either be in the HTML browser trying to access the application server or, if using NSAPI in the error logs of the Netscape HTTP server.

Not Found

You will get this error message from a Netscape server if you did not put default.sph on your web server.

Could not read configuration file <full path to file>.

Verify that the configuration is located in the specified directory. If the error message does not tell you where it thinks the configuration file is, make sure the configuration file is located in $SAPPHIRE/config/apserver.txt
If using NSAPI verify that the configuration file specified in obj.conf is correct. You will need to restart your web server if you change obj.conf. The line where you specify the configuration file name in obj.conf should look something like this:

Init fn="sapphire-init" 
file="/usr/sapphire/config/apserver.txt"

The Sapphire Application Server `<server name>' was not found in the configuration file.

Verify the name of the application server in the configuration file is correct. The name of the application server is in between the brackets. For example, [/tut2.cgi]. The name is case sensitive and should start with a leading slash (/).

No response from application server

Cannot contact application server

Verify that the Sapphire Application Server Manager (saappman) is running on the host where the application server is supposed to run. If you are using windows verify that the Sapphire Application Server Manager Service has been installed on the host with the Sapphire Gateway Manager.
Make sure all Sapphire Application Server Managers on your network are listening to the same port. Please see Installing the Sapphire/Web Application Server Manager for details.
Verify that the program= line in the configuration file is correct. Verify that it is correct by trying to execute the exact command line at a UNIX or DOS prompt. For best results cut and paste the command line.
Verify that the port(s) define for the application server are not in use by another process. You can check this by running the application server a UNIX or DOS prompt with the -port [port number] command line parameter. You should try every port specified in the configuration file. The program will complain if the port is already in use. Try using different port numbers until your application server does not print an error message. When an application server successfully starts it will not print any output, it will just wait to process a request. Once you find ports that will work be sure to put the proper ports back into your configuration file.

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