IFS TOUCH APPS SERVER ADMINISTRATION GUIDE

ABSTRACT
This document describes how to administrate the IFS Touch Apps Server.

TAS VERSION
1.5.0.

Contents
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 1
TAS Version ................................................................................................................................... 1
Login .............................................................................................................................................. 2
Customer Portal ............................................................................................................................ 4
Customer Information ............................................................................................................... 4
IFS Application Installations ...................................................................................................... 4
Registring the IFS Touch Apps Server with the IFS Cloud ......................................................... 4
Installing Apps ........................................................................................................................... 5
Upgrading Apps ......................................................................................................................... 5
App Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 6
FNDMOB App Configuration ................................................................................................. 7
Configuration parameters ......................................................................................................... 7
Maximum Message size ........................................................................................................ 7
Maximum number of calls .................................................................................................... 7

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LOGIN

Open the IFS Touch Apps Server portal on the port specified during the installation (port 8080
by default).

You should be presented with a screen that looks something like this:

Press “Sign in to IFS Touch Apps Server” and you will be taken to the sign in screen:

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Log in by entering your System ID (as specified during the installation) and the credentials of an
IFS Applications user with admin privileges. If you can log in successfully, the installation and
configuration has been successfully validated and you can proceed to configure your
installation. If you entered an incorrect application server URL during the installation, you can
run the installation again and correct it or login as a Local Admin.
When you select Local Admin, you log in using the Windows ID and Password for a user that is
a member of the Local Administrators group.

When logged in you are redirected to the Customer Portal.

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CUSTOMER PORTAL
In the Customer Portal you can edit your customer information and configure one or more
Systems / IFS Application installations.

CUSTOMER INFORMATION

To edit Customer Information, Press Edit, do the desired changes and press Update.

IFS APPLICATION INSTALLATIONS

Each IFS Touch Apps Server installation can handle one or more systems identified by a System
ID that is known to the clients. Each system is connected to an IFS Applications Installation. The
installer creates and updates the first system in the list.

To edit information for a system, press Edit in the list.

Figure 1: Service instance details - edit screen

For an Apps9 system you get two extra fields for an IFS User and Password. These are only
used when using apps based on FNDMOB. See: FNDMOB App Configuration

Change desired parameters and press Save.

To add a new system, press Add System and fill in information in the same detail window as
above.

To remove a system, press Remove.

REGISTRING THE IFS TOUCH APPS SERVER WITH THE IFS CLOUD

The IFS Touch Apps Server can be registered with the IFS Cloud. This will allow application dll’s
to be synchronized from the IFS Cloud (see Installing Apps below for more information).
Registration is optional. To be able to register, the server must be allowed to connect to
https://cloud.ifsworld.com:8080.

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Figure 2: Cloud Connection Status

In order to register the Touch Apps Server with the IFS Cloud click the Registration link in the
Cloud Connection Status section as shown in Figure 2. A system id is used to uniquely identify
the Touch Apps Server with the IFS Cloud. The system id should have the format
<id>.<domain> (e.g. the system id for a Touch Apps Server belonging to IFS might be called
tas1.ifsworld.com). You can select any of your existing system id’s for the connection or you
can add a new service instance, not connected to an IFS Application installation, dedicated to
the IFS Cloud connection.

INSTALLING APPS

Applications are distributed as dll files. Deployment to the IFS Touch Apps Server is done by
copying the dll to the Apps folder in the Touch Apps Server file structure in IIS.

The default location of the deployment directory is “c:\inetpub\IFS Touch Apps Server\Apps”,
where “c:\inetpub” is the IIS install directory and “IFS Touch Apps Server” is the name of the IIS
Application name as specified when installing the Touch Apps Server. If you are unsure about
the location you can view it in the IIS Manager. The physical path to the site can be found
under Basic Settings for the IFS Touch Apps Server site.

If the Touch Apps Server has been registered with the IFS Cloud application dll’s can be
downloaded and installed through the Customer Portal eliminating the manual file copying
step of the app installation. The “Download and install App Resources” link (see figure 3) leads
to a download page where new and updated dll’s can be downloaded and installed. This page
will only list new and updated applications. Already installed software will not show up.

Figure 3: App Resource Download

Once the applications have been installed they need to be enabled before end users can access
them. Please refer to the App Configuration section for information about how this is done.

UPGRADING APPS

When a new version of an application is released the new dll should be copied to the App
folder as described in the Installing Applications section above.

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If the new dll has the same name as an existing file the old file should be overwritten and the
new code will be used automatically for any subsequent calls to the app.

The normal upgrade scenario is that the new dll represents a different version of the
application and also has a new name. When the new dll is copied to the App folder there will
be two versions available in the App Configuration page for your systems. To start using the
new version it has to be enabled for the relevant systems. If upgrading within the same major
version (as indicated by the first digit in the version number) the old version will be
automatically disabled. Running two releases of an app with the same major revision is not
supported. If the new version of the app is a new major version then the old version should
remain active until all clients have upgraded to the latest version of the client app.

Example: Upgrading from version 2.1.0 to 3.0.0

1. Enable version 3.0.0

2. Wait for all clients to upgrade to new client apps
3. Disable version 2.1.0

APP CONFIGURATION

To change App Configuration for a system, press Configure.

Figure 4: App Configuration

Select which applications should be enabled for the system. For each app there can only be
one revision enabled within the same major version (e.g. 2.1.0 and 3.0.0 can both be enabled,
but 2.1.0 and 2.2.0 cannot be enabled concurrently).

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FNDMOB APP CONFIGURATION

For Apps built on the FNDMOB framework in APPS9 there is some extra configuration
functionality. These apps rely on meta data deployed to IFS Applications and require separate
granting in IFS Solution Manager. The steps to enable an app like this are:

1. In the portal validate meta data to ensure that the required components are installed
in IFS Applications.
2. In the portal Deploy meta data. This will deploy meta data about the app to IFS
Applications.
3. In IFS Enterprise Explorer (Solution Manager) configure the app and grant access as
required.
4. In the portal Enable the app. This will also activate the app in IFS Applications.

For more details, please refer to IFS Applications Technical Documentation.

CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS

The file web.config (default location c:\inetpub\IFS Touch Apps Server\web.config) contains a
number of parameters that can be adjusted to better fit the customer installation.

MAXIMUM MESSAGE SIZE

The default settings for inbound messages are set to 8MB with individual values restricted to
4MB. In a system where the end users might send larger files (e.g. high resolution photos or
videos) these values should be adjusted accordingly.

The settings in question are maxReceivedMessageSize and maxStringContentLength, both

found in the <system.servicemodel><bindings> section of the configuration file. The values
are given in number of bytes.

The maximum size for strings in outbound messages is controlled by MaxJsonLength in

<appSettings>. The default value is 4MB. In some installations this might have to be increased.
This setting does not affect binary downloads such as document attachments.

MAXIMUM NUMBER OF CALLS

The default settings allow for 500 concurrent calls to be processed by the Touch Apps Server.
This setting does not correlate directly with the maximum number of users and 500 concurrent
calls would normally be sufficient even in very large installations. The more concurrent calls an
installation allows the higher the potential load on the database. In large installations with
1000’s of users initializing their devices concurrently this setting might have to be changed in
order to achieve maximum throughput. However, it’s vital in these situations to monitor the
load on the database since this will typically be the bottle neck. Over loading the database

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might also result in lowered throughput so sometimes it’s better to throttle end user requests
in the Touch Apps Server.

The relevant parameters are maxConcurrentCalls, maxConcurrentSessions and

maxConcurrentInstances, found in the <system.serviceModel><behaviors><serviceBehaviors>
section of the configuration file. These parameters control the maximum number of incoming
requests that can be processed by the Touch Apps Server. There is also maxconnection under
<system.net><connectionManagement>. This setting controls the maximum number of
outgoing connections (i.e. calls to the IFS Applications installation) and can also be used as an
optimization setting.

The typical scenario would be to set maxconnection, maxConcurrentCalls and

maxConcurrentSessions to the same value, with maxConcurrentInstances set to double this
value. Sometimes though, a system might perform better with a lower maxconnection setting.
If the load on the IFS Applications database is too high, lowering maxconnection might not only
reduce the load on the database, it might actually increase throughput.