When using the Web-Activator, you have the option of configuring the way it responds to HTTP requests.

You do this by ensuring a special value is specified anywhere in the parameter string. That value is the configuration file specifier. The configuration file specifier is a filename (and relative path information) of a configuration file which resides on the server. The contents of the configuration file itself determines how the Web-Activator will respond to HTTP requests.

If a configuration file is not specified, default values are used. There are default behaviors for all of the attributes which you have the option of controlling. The default behaviour will be used if the configuration file does not specify differently or is not specified at all. All specifiers and parameters that can be set in the config file are also optional. If a parameter for a specifier is not supplied, a default value is used for that parameter.

You also have the option of using a configuration file, but not needing to specify it in the parameter string. You can use the default configuration file name "configDEFAULT.txt" as long as the file is in the same directory as the Web-Activator.

You can control various attributes of the request and response by using the following specifiers in your config file:

1. GENCODE_METHOD. The HTTP method to which the Web-Activator will respond.

2. GENCODE_PARAM_ID. This specifies the parameter name that will be used to identify the special GenCode parameter that you must assemble for the Web-Activator.

3. RETURN_TEMPLATE. This can either be an HTML file name (with relative path info on the server) or a literal string. It is used to assemble an Activation Code with prefix and suffix strings before returning the entire value to the caller.

4. LOG_ACTIVITY. This is a boolean flag to determine if a log file should be kept on the server.

5. LOG_FILE_NAME. The name of the log file to be generated (appended to).

6. LOG_SEPARATOR. A single constant which determines which delimiter will be used to delimit fields in the log file.

7. LOG_FIELDS. A list of comma separated fields which indicate which fields should be logged to the log file (if any).

8. LOG_MAX_SIZE. The maximum size a log file will be allowed to grow to (in Kilo-bytes).

9. LOG_MAX_SIZE_ACTION. Determines what to do with the log file if the LOG_MAX_SIZE size is reached.

More Information

For help on actually using the config file, see Configuring Web-Activator Requests and Responses in the SoftwareShield Web-Activator Reference.

For detailed information about the use of the specifiers themselves, see Web-Activator Configuration File Specifiers in the SoftwareShield Web-Activator Reference.

For information on how to assemble a parameter string to call the Web-Activator, see Web-Interface URL Format in the SoftwareShield Web-Activator Reference.