Interact with applications or documents on client?

Can 2x application server apps interact with files or applications on the client workstation? Citrix has a feature like this. Does TS 2003 + 2x Application Server have this capability?

 

2X application server apps can interact with files on the client workstation.

Nixu

 

Hi,
2X ApplicationServer comes with a Associate file extension. That's #1 and the other one is Redirect URLs and mails.

 

Are both of you pointing to the same feature, regarding the file ext association?

I've read that section of the manual but don't understand how it'd work. If I associate pdf with 2x, the impact would be that any pdf that I double click on the client would open using the 2x app (on the server)? Does it take over the possible pdf assoc with a locally installed copy of acrobat?

What would be most interesting as far as 2x server apps interacting with the client workstation would be the ability to handle local files (move, create, etc) and to issue api commands to locally installed libraries.

 

I'd still like some input on this.

Specifically, is there any way to run an application on the client pc using either the applications API or executing command line strings? Currently I call apps that have an api to create a file of a certain name or edit like so and so; or if they don't have an api, and offer the ability to do some things via command like. I shell out from VBA.

Would I be able to do anything like that with 2x? I think Citrix presentation server has a feature like that; and there is a code snippet that does that kind of thing over plain rdp. Having this kind of ability would really remove some barriers to addtl 2x deployments.

 

You can use the file redirection option.
From the server application you can use the drives on the client using the following naming format:

c:\ would become \\tsclient\c

so if you want to create a file called test.txt in the root folder you would need to call it \\tsclient\c\test.txt.


If you want to start remote applications on the client please check the manual for command line argument section where you can find all the infomation needed to start remote applications with arguments.

 

Thaks zippo. So, file system operations and command line operations are possible, and I'll check out those via the manual. But maybe there is no way to tap into a client pc application's API using code? That would be even better.

 

Let meknow what you want to do, and if I can I will help you

cheers

 

Hmm. I don't find any information on either of the two features that you say application server provides.

I'm looking in 2XAppServer-LoadBalancer-Manual.pdf, is that the right document?

A search for redirection finds only printer and url/mailto redirection. I don't see references to file redirection, and tsclient is found only in the linux install section. Is this documented? Is tsclient the actual phrase to use or is that a placeholder for some other value dependent on the configuration?

Also I looked through the command line section of that document (pg 178) and it does not appear to be about starting remote applications? More about starting/controlling 2x from command line?

So yes I'd sure appreciate your help on this.

The manual seems to be a version behind; many of the screenshots do not match the current version.

 

Drive redirection is standard on terminal server.
To enable it you just need to go to 2x client click on the "Connection properties", select "Local Resources" tab, and enable "Disk Drives" from the local devices list.

Once this is enabled and no server restrictions are done from the remote application you can access any driver local on the local machine.

You can try it out by opening notepad, select file open and then type in \\tsclient\c and you will notice that you will be seeing you local files from the remote application.


Now to start a remote application from the command line you should run tsclient.exe found in the folder where you installed the client.

the arguments are as follows:

s!='server'
b!='backupserver'
a!='#13' application id
p!='' command line arguments for remote app
t!='80' port number
u!='user'
q!='password'
d!='domain'
m!='mode' 0=regular GW, 1=direct, 2=SSL

 

OK, I see, those entries in the pdf are for use when working with other applications via command line. Very helpful! Thanks zippo.

 

I wonder, is there any way to tell if the application is running inside a 2x hosted session, vs a regular RD session, in code?

 

You can check if a process memshell.exeis running but this is a tweak and not official so it can change in the future

 

I just tested the ability to open a file on the local client, invoked from the 2x session application using tsclient. It works...very cool.

But it's so slow. My test was simply to ask the local (client side) copy of notepad.exe to open a one line text file. That takes 10-12 seconds. The connection is pretty fast; the application proper runs very quickly.

Can anyone explain why using tsclient to execute a local file is so slow? Neither the executable or the file being opened need to travel across the wire, so it seems odd that it's be this slow.

 

The data must travel across the wire as the remote application is running on the server and not on the client so all file system commands travel from the server and are executed on the client, the reply is then sent backto the server.

Anyway the first operation might take a while as windows initializes the Network provider the first time it is needed. Further operation should be faster, still 10-12 seconds are quite along time.

 

It's terribly slow. The commands are super brief, the path to notepad.exe and a pointer to a txt in the root of c:\. Can't get any less of a command to send. There must be much more data sent across the wire for screen updates, which as I mentioned are rendered very quickly. Something is wrong, either with ts or with 2x, I don't know which.

If I open via the 2x hosted app, it takes 10-12 seconds the first time, and every subsequent time. Aggg...this will be useless unless someone can point to a fix? I'm on 6.1; I'll see what an update to 6.2 does.

 

Now I've got 6.2 on server and client; it still takes 12 seconds to start notepad, each time it's started. Useless. I wonder if the slowness comes from 2x, or if it's an issue with TS somehow?

I hope someone from 2x can comment. How can anyone use this feature? Nothing can be simpler to call that a one line text file opened in notepad.exe.

 

When I start applications the first application takes about 5 seconds as the session with the server has to be established. Then any subsequent application are started immediately. Ensure that you do not disconnect from the session. If you close the remote apps this happens after 25 seconds,which can be configured from the console.
Good Luck!!

 

I think your 5 second application startup time is different from the delay that I'm seeing. If my remote app invokes another server based application, like Word, it starts pretty quickly the first time, lik 3-5 seconds, and almost instantly if I close and reopen word. It's instantiating a local (workstation based) app via tsclient.exe that is so slow.

2x, can you comment?

 

I start it via tsclient
maybe you should post how you are doing it