Differences between full and web clients

Some Application Studio features behave differently in the web because of the client-server nature of web applications. This topic lists differences between Application Studio and Application Studio WebServices.

Design mode

Only View mode is available in Application Studio WebServices. You cannot create new reports in Application Studio WebServices.

Write back

In Application Studio WebServices write back cells are not written back immediately after leaving the cell by pressing Enter. Instead the values are written back once using the Write Back button in the toolbar. This saves expensive trips to the web server and avoids recalculating the report after each write back.

When you right-click a write back cell, the pop-up menu does not offer the "Paste" command if the input caret is placed after the last character in the cell. Either move the input caret to the left or left-click the cell.

If the content of the write back cell is larger than the cell itself (for example, when the font is larger than the cell) then the red 'dirty cell' marker is not displayed at the top left corner of the cell. Use the default font size for unprotected cells or a font that does not make the text content higher than the cell.

Text direction

The vertical text direction is not supported in Application Studio WebServices.

Freeze panes

In Application Studio WebServices, if a report uses two or more 'freeze panes', any option button or list box controls must be placed in only one of the panes.

Cell fill patterns

Fill patterns are ignored in Application Studio WebServices. They have effect only in the full client.

Combo box properties

These properties of combo boxes are not supported in Application Studio WebServices.

Arrow color of the drop-down button
Background color of the drop-down button
Border type

The 3D effect of combo boxes in the full client is not supported by Application Studio WebServices.

List box properties

The Border Type property which enables the 3D effect of list boxes in the full client is not supported Application Studio WebServices. The look and feel of the list box is always flat in ASWS.

POVs

None of the visual effects applicable to POVs in the full client is supported in Application Studio WebServices.

Overlapping objects

In the full client you can, for example, overlay a command button, with a shape from the Graphics toolbar. The two objects occupy separate layers. If you send the shape to the back it remains visible, with the button on top of it. In the full client, the button remains clickable. In Application Studio WebServices the button cannot be clicked.

ActiveX report objects

3rd party ActiveX report objects are not supported in Application Studio WebServices. These objects are displayed as images in Application Studio WebServices.

Visible report area

The report property: "Only calculate visible area" has no effect in Application Studio WebServices. The report is always calculated completely not partially.

Browser refresh

Application Studio WebServices does not support the browser refresh feature. To recalculate a report, click it in the report tree. Using the browser refresh feature logs you out and ends the current session.

Cell borders

The full client supports two dashed cell border types. Application Studio WebServices only supports only one dashed and one dotted border type.

Cell borders do not work correctly when the cells are located next to a freeze pane border: for example, if the cells are in the last row of the top freeze pane. In this case, different cell border widths (for example, 2 and 3 pixel) do not display correctly - especially when the report content is scrolled.

Pick list dialog

The feature set of the web Pick List dialog is not fully compatible with the full client feature set.

Splasher

The Splasher dialog is not supported in Application Studio WebServices.

About box

The About box is not available in Application Studio WebServices.

Cell notes

Application Studio WebServices does not support cell notes.

Hide reports in report tree

This behavior is only available only in Application Studio WebServices.

Charts

Charts are displayed as images in Application Studio WebServices and do not support any user interaction.

Scripting

Performance issues dictate that some script events are not available in Application Studio WebServices. For example, the OnMouseOver event would result in network traffic each time the user moved the mouse.

These events are supported:

Application.OnScriptStart
Application.OnScriptStop
Application.OnReportLoaded
Spreadsheet.OnPreJump
Spreadsheet.OnPostJump
Spreadsheet.OnPickListSelectionChange
Spreadsheet.StartRecalc
Spreadsheet.EndRecalc
Spreadsheet.StartDrillDown
Spreadsheet.EndDrillDown
Spreadsheet.PreWriteBack
Spreadsheet.PostWriteBack
ListViewObject.SelChange
ButtonObject.Click
PointOfView.PovSelChange

In addition, with a limitation, the Application.OnTimer event can be also used. The limitation is that, when the report is rendered on the server it is immediately transformed into HTML page and sent to the web browser. The normal timer event cannot be used in this case because its time elapses too late to be executed before the page is sent.

Special attention must be devoted to message boxes that are displayed to the user from the script. Because these are modal dialogs and need to be explicitly closed by the user they must not be used in the scripts when they are executed under Application Studio WebServices. When these functions are used they cause the script to terminate its execution and wait for a user action. Finally, it locks Application Studio WebServices.

Log on

Application Studio WebServices differs from the full client in these ways:

If the web application is configured to run with Windows authentication then users can only logon using Windows authentication. No other authentication systems are available in the logon screen.
If the web application is configured to run with 'Anonymous access' then all authentication systems are available except Windows.

The reason for this difference is the authentication behavior of Internet Information Services (IIS). When the first request takes places IIS decides under which account Application Studio WebServices will run.