TrueGUI.exe will let you get started right away. Its purpose is to setup your configuration for your unique environment. When installed from our website, your first experience will be focused on a demonstration using our server for your connection. This can easily be modified to connect to your server. Once you have the basic concepts down you can use it with your own installation package and just need to follow the licensing process for each pc to be deployed. The configuration settings are stored in encrypted file called settings.cfg. Deployment is detailed in the deployment walkthru. Lets take a quick look at how it all flows.
TrueGui Configuration
The following screen should appear with these various "tab" sections.
Host Tab
In this tab you configure the server your connecting to. The address of the server is displayed, although you can enter the name rather than IP, it is looked up by the box to an IP address. If the name is invalid the address is reset to the local address. The server address should contain the server you would connect via telnet. Some use a non-standard port rather than 23 for the server connection and the following fields are sometimes used to expedite the login procedure. The system will automatically send these 3 fields to the server after waiting for the timing interval. Depending on the server load and network congestion you may need to adjust the timing to wait upon sending each of these commands. Startup refers to the first command to be sent upon connection.
In our demo, we go right into GUI upon connection and our passthru demo port has a limited telnet server that has locked down functionality.
Below the Host Tab is the connection buttons. The first "Test Connection" simply verifies the server exists based on the parameters above. "Connect Via Passthru" opens your telnet client, opens a connection to the server, and joins the two together. The connect button launches straight into a GUI session and provides connection status.
Connect and Settings
The Settings as mentioned earlier are stored in the settings.cfg file, but you may want to have multiple settings for additional servers or you may want to lock down these settings from end user tampering. So by clicking on lock you can set a password to prevent tampering. Click it again and re-enter the password to release the setting. If you locked the settings and lost the password you could write down the settings, delete the settings.cfg. When you launch TrueGUI.exe the settings file will need to be set and saved again. The "Load" button will re-load the configuration. You may change the name of the file and click "Save" to store off additional profiles. You may also browse to additional configuration settings by clicking the magnify glass icon.
Startup tab
Here are various settings that are defined when TrueGUI.exe is launched. In a normal client enveronment you would have just the AutoStart and AutoMinimized checks. You may find as a developer that the other parameters provide you an arsenal of useful features in testing. All are self describing and used in the tutorials for their various functions.
Passthru Tab
The function of Passthru is to allow communication between the server and the telnet session using your existing telnet client. The telnet client rather than communication directly with the server will communicate with a hosted server on your pc and that will then communicate or pass thru the telnet data back to the server. The button "Select Telnet" will locate your telnet application. Most telnet clients allow you to pick your configuration settings via a startup parameter. Several of these are documented in the Appendix on TrueGUI.exe.
GUI mode is controlled by strings sent thru the session. It is important to note that when developing the application you may want to use an additional direct telnet session as it is easy to get yourself stuck in GUI mode by editing the source code and programmatically turning on the GUI mode.
The Port refers to the local port on your pc that the telnet client is looking for. In most cases if you are running a firewall the port that is defined will go un-noticed as it is loopback communication. But if your firewall asks or you are unable to communicate then a firewall exception may need to be defined for this port or application.
The Timing field would rarely need to be defined in circumstances where sending the mode string does not get heard properly by the client. It is usually defined when debugging a problem.
Developer Tab
This tab contains tools defined by the developer. The Forms and Scripts directory are locations of the Forms and scripts used in your program. By defining a debug file you store communication that is handled back and forth with the server. See the Debugger walkthru for more details.
Support request launches a mailto: command for troubleshooting with our developers.
Lastly "Tray Icon" is a feature that let you mask the application's Icons with those of your own. Using a third party tool you create an icon for your application then select that ico for TrueGui to use in its top corner and tray. You would still need to change the desktop icon in the same fashion but it consolidates the end user look and feel.
About Tab
Although the page is self explanatory it is worthy to note that you may find it useful to check this after finding problems when one person is working fine while another is not. The page reads the versioning information at runtime. So if something is off then an update may be necessary.
For additional details about using TrueGUI.exe, please see Appendix E.