When XTEXT is used with ATE to edit files originating on a remote server (whether Unix or Windows), the source file or source text must be transferred from the remote server to the client PC in order for XTEXT to operate on it. Although this is handled automatically by XTEXT, here are some possible technical obstacles that could interfere with the desired result:
| • | The server must have an FTP server that the client can access (no firewall or other security restrictions). Note that you can also configure ATE to use SFTP (via the SSH service on port 22 if FTP is not available or if you want better security). |
| • | The ATE client must be configured with a valid FTP login and password. Otherwise XTEXT will have to prompt the user, which wo not be very efficient. |
| • | The FTP (or SFTP server) must use the same root directory as A-Shell on the server is using (because this is how XTEXT constructs the filespecs in the generated FTP commands). |
| • | If the source is a file, XTEXT will look at the first line to see what kind of terminators it uses, and then select the appropriate file transfer mode (binary vs. ASCII) so that the copy seen by the control has the standard Windows CRLF terminators. One way this could fail is if, in order to close a security loophole in some FTP servers, the FTP ASCII transfer mode was disabled. In that case, if the source file had LF terminators, the control will display graphic boxes where there should be line breaks. Workarounds for that problem would include reconfiguring the FTP server to allow ASCII transfers, changing the file terminators on the Unix side from LF to CRLF (see OPTIONS=CRLF, CRNL in miame.ini), and switching from FTP to SFTP. Note that in the case of the vsFTP server (common on some Unix platforms), the relevant configuration setting is "ascii_download_available" in the /etc/vsftpd.conf file. |
| • | If the source is a string, then FTP is not used and the line terminators will not be adjusted, so the application string must include CRLF terminators. |
| • | When the updated file or string is transferred back to the server, XTEXT will attempt to give it the appropriate line terminators based on the standard terminators for the server OS and whether the OPTIONS=CRNL setting in miame.ini was specified. |
Also see the subtopic listed in the table of contents.
u Non-FTP Channel Text Return
XTEXT supports an alternate method of returning updated text to the server, which does not require FTP. This method works via the keyboard channel and only works when the destination is a string buffer—i.e. TXFF_FILE flag is NOT set in the TXC.DOCFMT'DST field.
The primary motivation for this non-FTP mechanism is to deal with servers that do not have FTP support configured, or have it configured in a mode that prevents access to the directories where A-Shell lives on the server; this is quite common with Windows servers. It is also somewhat more efficient when editing small files, which would be consistent with the use of string buffer mode rather than file mode.
This requires a current (later than 995) of ASHW32 on both sides.
This mode is automatic with Windows servers (ATS), but you can also force it for Unix servers by setting the new flag TXFF_RAWBUF in the TXC.DOCFMT'DST field.
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