The NETClient component allows running parts of an AIDA stack over a TCP/IP network connection. NETClient requires AIDA_NetServer to be running on the destination system.
The implementation and protocol specification are preliminary. The Windows™ version will run as service, the Linux version will be implemented as daemon in future releases. Future releases will support user authentication. Furthermore network communication will be done by an AIDA superserver so that only one port will be needed for all communication (AIDA Commander, AIDA Visual Objects and AIDA Stacks).
The NETClient component expects the service bsk_stack to be registiered for TCP connections in the operating system's services file. If this service does not exist NETClient defaults to port 50005.
Only four transport channels are supported in the current release: One for recursive functions from lower to higher stack levels and three for recursive functions from higher to lower stack levels (AIDA_pstReceiveEvent() and AIDA_pstBreakRecvEventWait() calls each have an exclusive channel since they can block). Therefore it is not allowed for components above a NETClient component to intercept recursive function calls in "upward" direction (AIDA_vInputFilter()) and generate function calls in "downward" direction since this may lead to deadlocks when used over a network connection. This may change in future releases.
AIDA_NetServer is currently implemented as an application. For the Windows NT platform this may change in future releases.
In the current release no user authentication is required / supported.
NETClient and AIDA_NetServer support Windows NT™ based systems. MS-DOS™ based systems like Windows 95™, Windows 98™ and Windows ME™ are unsupported.
When restoring AIDA stacks values for certain parameters can be replaced with values given by the environment. Replacements for parameters located on the remote host will be done with the values found in the local environment.
If AIDA events to be sent are addressed to the NETClient's stack level the NETClient component simply adopts the stack level and passes the event on over the network. For events received with the stack level set to the next component's stack level the NETClient component also will adopt the stack level and pass the event upwards. This means that the NETClient component completely hides the events of the next stack level.
The described behaviour avoids unnecessary event cloning operations and so simplifies and speeds up the operation of the NETClient component. This may change in future releases in favour of a more consistent behaviour.
AIDA Overview, list of AIDA components