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Smart Client network configuration

The network configuration options for Smart Clients are quite extensive and which configuration to choose is largely dependent on the (different) network setups between the machines on which Smart Clients are launched and the Servoy Application Server. What the optimal network configuration for Smart Client is, comes down to the following questions:

• Are some of the client machines configured to access webpages through a proxy?
• Can the Servoy Application Server directly access the client machines on any port?
• Can all client machines access the RMI port on the Servoy Application Server?
• Can all client machines access the Servoy Application Server on the same IP address?

Connection Modes

The Servoy Application Server has several modes in which Smart Clients can communicate with the Application Server. Which mode is the best depends on the network setup between the Application Server:

Direct Connections:

Two-Way socket:Servoy Application Server and the client machines on which the Smart Client will be launched. As the Servoy Smart Client runs over both a LAN and WAN's, including over the internet, it can be that there are different network setups for different client machines. 

• Direct Connections
  In Direct Connection mode Smart Clients connect to the Application Server for communication over the configured RMI port. Vise versa, the Application Server connects to the client machine on a random port to communicate with the Smart Client. 
  While being the mode with the least overhead, only has limited use cases. Using direct connections, all Smart Clients should be able to access the Servoy Application Server under the same IP address and access to the RMI port of the server should not be restricted. Secondly the Servoy Application Server should be able to connect without restrictions to any port on any client machine that will run a Smart Client. This scenario is not very likely, due to firewalls, proxies and anti-virus software.
  Direct connection mode does not support compression and SS.
• Two-Way socket
  Two-Way socket mode provides a more robust communication mechanism between Smart Clients and the Servoy Application Server, where only the Smart Client initiates connections to the Application Server. This means that only the Smart Clients need to be able to access the Application Server and that the Application Server does not need to be able to connect to the client machine, like is required when using direct connections.
  However Two-Way Socket connections are not possible if the client machine is configured to to through a proxy to access webpages. In that scenario the Java Web Start mechanism already initializes the communication mechanism for use with a proxy, stopping Servoy from initializing Two-Way socket mode, thus falling back to Direct Connection mode, with it's limitations mentioned above. 
• Tunnel
  Servoy comes with a so-called tunnel that Smart Clients can use to connect to Application Server. The tunnel is the most robust communication mode available, at the cost of utilization of server-side resources. For each Smart Client more memory, threads and sockets (connections) are used on the Application Server. The tunnel supports to modes, namely HTTP and Socket:
  • HTTP Tunnel
    When using the tunnel in HTTP mode, all communication between the Smart Client and the Application Server is done using the HTTP Protocol, over the HTTP port on which the Application Server runs. The benefit of this mode is that it doesn't require that the client machines can access the Application Server on the RMI port. This can be a huge benefit in cases where it's not possible to open up access to the RMI port. When Smart Clients connect to the Application Server using the HTTP Tunnel, they will utilize threads and connections from the Tomcat application server that underlies the Servoy Application Server. 
  • Socket Tunnel
    The tunnel in Socket mode is similar to the tunnel in HTTP mode, except that the communication with the Application Server goes over the RMI port of the Application Server. This means that the RMI port of the Application Server should be accessible from all client machines that will run Smart Clients. Unlike the tunnel in HTTP mode, the tunnel in Socket mode uses server-side resources (threads & sockets (connections)) directly in Servoy, not through Tomcat. 

Profiles

SSL

Tunnel:

Tunnel over HTTP:

Tunnel over socket connection:

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