Manual configuration for IIS 8.x and IIS 10.x

These are the instructions for the manual configuration of the ISAPI dispatcher for IIS 8.0 and IIS 10.0.

Prerequisites

The installer needs some IIS features to be activated:

To activate IIS on a Windows® Server 2012:

To activate IIS Management Scripts and Tools on Windows 8 and 10

To activate IIS Management Scripts and Tools on Windows 8 and 10 and validate the basic IIS configuration requirements:

  1. Verify IIS is installed. In Control Panel > Administrative Tools, you must have an entry called Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

    Internet Information Services in Administrative Tools screenshot

    Figure 1. Administrative Tools window with IIS Manager highlighted

  2. Verify IIS is started. Open a browser and enter the URL: http://localhost. The IIS welcome screen displays.

    IIS welcome screen screenshot

    Figure 2. IIS Welcome Screen

  3. Set the appropriate Windows Features. Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features. Click Turn Windows features on or off.

    Turn Windows features on or off screenshot

    Figure 3. Turn Windows features on or off link

  4. In the Windows Features dialog, select IIS Management Scripts and Tools, and verify that the ASP and the ISAPI options are also selected. When checking these options, other options may also be automatically checked. That is normal behavior, as they are combined options.

    Windows features on/off screenshot

    Figure 4. Turn Windows features on or off dialog

Configuring IIS 8.x and IIS 10.x application pools

The application pool should be configured according to the kind of application the GAS ISAPI Extension will run. If the GAS ISAPI Extension runs only Web service applications, it is fully compatible with application pool parameters. If it runs Web or Desktop applications, IIS should drive all requests to the same worker process; therefore, a dedicated application pool should be created.

To create an application pool:

  1. In Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, right-click Application Pools and click Add Application Pool....

    Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager Features View screenshot of Application Pools showing the application pool, "GASAppPool", added and highlighted

    Figure 5. Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager Application Pools screen

  2. In the Add Application Pool... dialog, enter a name for the application pool, for example "GASAppPool".
  3. In the .NET CLR version box, select No Managed Code.
  4. In the Managed pipeline mode box, select Classic.
  5. Click OK.

To configure the application pool to run Web and Desktop applications, perform the following:

  1. In Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, right-click the application pool (GASAppPool in our example), and click Advanced Settings...
  2. In the Advanced Settings dialog, in the Process Model area, set the Idle Time-out (minutes) field to "0" or to a value that is greater than the USER_AGENT timeout value of Genero 4GL applications that the application pool will run.
  3. In the Process Model area, set the Maximum Worker Processes field to 1.
  4. In the Recycling area, set the Disable Overlapped Recycle flag to True.
  5. In the Recycling area, set the Disable Recycling for Configuration Changes flag to True.
  6. Click OK.

The GAS ISAPI Extension will be executed on behalf of the user that is registered in the pool's properties. That user must have access to the FGLASDIR directory. To change the user identity that runs the GAS:

  1. In Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, right-click the application pool (GASAppPool in our example), and click Advanced Settings...
  2. In the Advanced Settings dialog, in the Process Model area, click the Identity field.
  3. Click ... to open the Application Pool Identity dialog.
  4. According to your security policy, either select a built-in account or set a custom account.
  5. Click OK.
  6. In the Advanced Settings dialog, click OK.
Note: In order to configure application pools according to the type of applications that will be run, two different virtual directories, each with its own application pool, may be created on the same instance of IIS - one that will run only Web service applications, and another that will run only Web and Desktop applications.

Configuring an IIS 8.x and IIS 10.x application

To create an application:

  1. Create a directory on the disk that will be the application root for the application, the directory is for example FGLASDIR/ISAPI.
  2. In Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, right-click the web site on which you want to add the application, for example "Default Web Site", and then click Add Application...


    Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager Default Web Site Home screen showing application ("gas") added and highlighted

    Figure 6. Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager Default Web Site Home screen

  3. In the Add Application dialog, enter the alias of the application, for example "gas". This name will be the virtual directory part of the URLs accessing the GAS.
  4. Enter the physical path to the directory created in step 1.
  5. Click Select...
  6. In the Select Application Pool dialog, select the application pool that has been defined previously.
  7. Click OK.
  8. In the Add Application dialog, click OK.

The authentication configuration depends on your security policy. If all users have access to the application, the identity of the anonymous user should be configured as following:

  1. In Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, click the application on which you want to configure the identity of the anonymous user.
  2. In the Features View panel, double-click the Authentication icon.
  3. In the Authentication feature, select the Anonymous Authentication line.
  4. Ensure that the status is Enabled.
  5. In the Actions area, click Edit...
  6. In the Edit Anonymous Authentication Credentials dialog, select Application pool identity.
  7. Click OK.

To bind the application to the GAS ISAPI Extension:

  1. In Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, click the application on which you want to bind the application to the GAS ISAPI Extension.
  2. In the Features View panel, double-click the Handler Mappings icon.
  3. In the Handler Mappings feature, in the Actions area, click Add Wildcard Script Map...
  4. In the Add Wildcard Script Map dialog, enter the path to the GAS ISAPI Extension DLL: FGLASDIR\bin\isapidispatch.dll.
  5. Enter a name for this mapping, for example "GAS ISAPI Extension".
  6. Click OK.
  7. To the question Do you want to allow this ISAPI extension?, click Yes.
  8. In the Handler Mappings feature, in the Actions area, click View Ordered List...
  9. Ensure that the GAS ISAPI Extension is at the top of the list.
  10. Click View Unordered List...
  11. Select the GAS ISAPI Extension in the Actions area, click Edit
  12. In the Edit Script Map dialog, click on Request Restrictions
  13. In the Request Restrictions dialog's Mapping panel, uncheck the Invoke handler only if requests is mapped to: option
  14. In the Request Restrictions dialog's Access panel, select the Script option
  15. Click OK.

Although the GAS ISAPI Extension has been allowed automatically when you answered Do you want to allow this ISAPI extension? with Yes, to do it manually:

  1. In Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, click the root node, the one that contains the host name.
  2. In the Features View panel, double-click the ISAPI and CGI Restrictions icon.
    Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager Features View screenshot of Connections root node with highlighted ISAPI and CGI Restrictions icon.

    Figure 7. Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager Connections root node screen

  3. In the ISAPI and CGI Restrictions feature, in the Actions area, click Add...
  4. In the Add ISAPI or CGI Restriction dialog, enter the path to the GAS ISAPI Extension DLL: FGLASDIR\bin\isapidispatch.dll.
  5. Enter a description, for example "GAS ISAPI Extension".
  6. Ensure that the Allow extension path to execute checkbox is checked.
  7. Click OK.

Post requisites

After you have finished the installation, you now need to configure the GAS ISAPI Extension configuration file, see Finishing the installation.