Wait for front-end ping timeout
Define the wait-for-ping timeout of the runtime system to control the built-in "keep alive" solution provided by Genero.
This feature is not supported when running on mobile devices, or when displaying applications on mobile devices.
It can happen that the user leaves the program for a while without using it. The network policy (firewall) might force a close of the TCP connection after a given period of inactivity. To avoid such connection shutdown when there is no GUI exchange, the front-end sends successive ping events after a timeout period of inactivity, to keep the TCP connection alive. The inactivity timeout can be configured in front-ends. The front-end ping is normal behavior and part of the GUI client/server protocol.
With this keep alive technique, a front-end connection always remains open, even if the user leaves the workstation for several hours. If your network connection comes at a cost to support this type of connection, it is recommended that you consider configuring the front-end to turn off the ping event or stop it after a given number of pings. Check the front-end configuration documentation for more details.
If the front-end program is not stopped properly as happens when, for example, it is killed by a
system reboot, or when there is network failure, the TCP connection is lost and the runtime system
no longer receives ping events. In this case, the runtime system waits for a specified time, before
it raises the error -8063. By default (when no exception handler is defined), the runtime system just
stops. However, the error -8063 can be trapped with a WHENEVER ERROR
or
TRY/CATCH
block, to perform some finalization tasks. The program should then
immediately stop with EXIT PROGRAM n
(where
n > 0
).
The wait-for-ping timeout period of the runtime system can be configured with the
gui.protocol.pingTimeout
fglprofile entry. By default, the runtime system waits for 600 seconds (10
minutes):
gui.protocol.pingTimeout = 800
If you set the wait-for-ping timeout to a value lower than the ping delay of the front-end, the program will stop with the -8063 error after that timeout, even if the TCP connection is still alive. For example, when a front-end has a ping delay of 5 minutes, the recommended minimum value for this parameter is about 330 seconds (5 minutes + 30 seconds to make sure the client ping arrives).