7.4

l HTML Form Action: An HTMLForm in the browser that may contain text and attached files can be filled and sent to a
process with the HTTPServer Input Task.
l HTTP Data Submission: A custom application or a server sends the request to PlanetPressSuite Workflow Tools using
either a POST or GET command. The application or server then waits for a response from PlanetPressSuite Workflow
Tools.
PlanetPress Workflow can serve both static and dynamic resources to a web browser, however it is not meant to be used as a
fully featured web server, as it is not built for responsiveness nor guaranteed uptime. It is much better to have a common web
server (for example, IISor Apache)to serve your contents and to have PlanetPress available only to process things only it can
do.
You can control access to the PlanetPressSuite Workflow Tools HTTP Server via the Access Manager.
Important Configuration, Setup and Options
Before starting to work with HTTPworkflows, there are few key points to keep in mind in terms of configuration. First of all,
the following options are available in the PlanetPress Workflow Preference screen, under the HTTPServer Input 1 and
HTTPServer Input 2 sections:
l Port (default value:8080 recommended):The port number is the one in which a browser needs to make a
request to PlanetPress Workflow. By default in most web server, port 80 is used and, when this is the case, it is not nec-
essary to include it. For example, if Itype http://www.objectiflune.com/ in my browser, it is actually accessing the
address http://www.objectiflune.com:80/ , but port 80 is always hidden. The reason port 8080 is used by default is to
prevent any interference with existing web servers installed or activated on the same server as PlanetPress Workflow.
l Time-out(seconds):This determines how long the HTTPServer service will wait for the process to finish, before
returning a time out error back to the client browser. This means that if a process takes more than 120 seconds (by
default)to complete, the browser will time out. While you can change this value, it is recommended to always keep
your processing to a minimum, since both browsers and users generally frown upon being stopped for more than a min-
ute, unless they are well aware of this processing time (and even then...)
l Enable server for SSLrequests:This enables secure communication between the browser and the server via
HTTPS. By enabling this option, you will need to provide for the proper certificates, key and password. While this con-
figuration is beyond the scope of this document, there are plenty of resources on the Internet to explain these systems.
l Serve HTTPresources:This is where you enable static resources in PlanetPress Workflow. When enabling this
option, the HTTPserver will always look in the Resource Folder for while requested inside of the Resource action
name as a folder. This means that, if your Resource folder is c:\planetpress\http and your Resource
action name is static, pointing your browser to http://127.0.0.1:8080/static/css/style.css will
immediately load and return the file c:\planetpress\http\css\style.css . This does not require any process
to work - everything is handled directly by the HTTPServer Input and files are returned immediately. This feature is
very useful when dealing with stylesheets, images, browser javascript, or static html files that do not require any proc-
essing.
You also need to take into consideration the options inside each of your processes that start with the HTTPServer Input
task, as they will greatly impact how this process responds. In the process' properties, the following options will modify
HTTPbehavior:
l Self-Replicating Process:This option is critically important when dealing with HTTPprocesses, so check it now.
Basically, this means that when HTTPrequests are received, the process will duplicate itself up to the specified max-
imum number, in order to simultaneously (and asynchronously)handle multiple requests. See Access Process Prop-
erties for more details.
Special Workflow Types