A typical run

This section is intended to provide an understanding for the generic functionality offered by ITP/OnLine Server and to show how it can be configured and customized. Some parts of this section depend on the flavor of ITP/OnLine. In these cases information for ASP.NET is provided with its equivalent for J2EE in brackets. Most information, however, goes for both the ASP.NET and the J2EE implementations. Make sure that the steps in the sections "How to get started" of both the installation guides have been completed.

After installation, browse to http://[machine]:[port]/itp/app/sample/modelselect.aspx (http://[machine]:[port]/itp/app/sample/modelselect.jsp), where [machine] is the name of the web server and [port] the port through which it is accessible. The following page will be shown:

This page shows one of the two main functionalities of ITP/OnLine, i.e. the possibility to retrieve (and present) a structured list of models that are available on ITP/Server. The list shown holds all the models available in the Models-subdirectory of ITPWORK directory ITP/Server, that are accessible to the browsing user i.e., administrators can limit the models available to a certain user by simply managing windows file authorization on ITP/Server.

The page consists of four frames. The two outer ones serve as margins. The left inner one shows a (possibly nested) list of folders. From this list, a page with the models for the currently selected folder is loaded in the right frame.

In the right frame, models are presented as links. Click on the link "Complaint letter". This will open http://[machine]:[port]/itp/sample/modelbegin.aspx (http://[machine]:[port]/itp/sample/modelbegin.jsp) in a new browser. To be more precise: this url is extended with a query string, which contains information about the model to be run.

A page is shown, asking the user to select an output format and whether or not 'previews' should be shown. Whenever ITP sends out additional questions it can accompany these with the document in its current stage of production. This document, the so called 'preview' may be presented to the user. Leave the defaults as they are. Click OK to start the model run on the server.

The page that follows shows the first form of the model run. The Complaint letter model requires a customer to whom the letter will be sent. Because this customer has not been provided yet, the model asks for a customer i.e., ITP/Server has sent out an XForms XML message that has been translated by ITP/OnLine to an HTML-page. In the right frame, a preview of the document is shown, which as yet contains nothing but a logo. Click on "1002 Benitas-Fuentes G." to proceed.

Another form is sent out by the model, asking for the medium through which the complaint was received. Options are presented in a drop-down menu. No additional content has been produced and the preview remains the same. Select E-mail and click OK.

Another (last) form is sent out, prompting the user for three additional questions; a date, some free text and another drop-down box. In the document a header has been produced, which contains some of the information provided earlier e.g., the name of the customer and the fact that the complaint was received by email. The information provided in the previous form is reflected in the preview. Provide answers to the questions and click OK.

The model run has been completed. The resulting PDF document is shown in the right frame. Click on the blue arrow to resize the frame. Now browse to http://[machine]:[port]/itp/app/sample2/modelselect.aspx (http://[machine]:[port]/itp/app/sample2/modelselect.jsp), where [machine] is the name of the web server and [port] the port through which it is accessible. This leads to similar, but slightly different features: