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Tip: Essentially the "NodeJS Server Input" on page327 task does the same as the HTTP Server
Input task, but it uses a NodeJS Server (installed by Workflow) instead of Workflow's custom
server component. The NodeJS Server Input task is more secure, more up to date and more
standardized.
It is configured using its three settings dialogs in the Preferences (Workflow button
>Preferences).
Note: You can control access to the PReS Workflow Tools HTTP Server via the Access Man-
ager.
Important configuration, setup and options
Before starting to work with HTTP workflows, there are a few key points to keep in mind in terms of con-
figuration.
First of all, the following options are available in the PReS Workflow Preference screen, under the
HTTP Server Input 1 and HTTP Server Input 2 sections:
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Port (default value: 8080 recommended): The port number is the one in which a browser
needs to make a request to PReS Workflow. By default in most web servers, port 80 is used and,
when this is the case, it is not necessary to include it. For example, if I type http://www.ob-
jectiflune.com/ in my browser, it is actually accessing the address http://www.ob-
jectiflune.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
PReS Workflow.
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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 minute, unless they are
well aware of this processing time (and even then...)
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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 cer-
tificates, key and password (see also: "Obtaining a certificate" on page31). While this con-
figuration is beyond the scope of this documentation, there are plenty of resources on the
Internet to explain these systems.
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Serve HTTP resources: This is where you enable static resources in PReS Workflow. When
enabling this option, the HTTP server will always look in the Resource Folder for files requested
inside of the Resource action name as a folder. This means that, if your Resource folder is
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