DOCUMENT:Q191629  13-AUG-1999  [foxpro]
TITLE   :HOWTO: Create an MTS Component that Works with FoxIsapi
PRODUCT :Microsoft FoxPro
PROD/VER:WINDOWS:6.0
OPER/SYS:
KEYWORDS:

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The information in this article applies to:

 - Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, version 6.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

Visual FoxPro 6.0 contains many server improvements including those that allow
better integration with Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS). There may be
situations where you want to use an MTS component with FoxIsapi.

MORE INFORMATION
================

FoxIsapi is an Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI)
extension that allows for Visual FoxPro (VFP) servers to be used with Internet
Information Server to generate server-side HTML Web pages. The URL includes the
VFP server, which is instantiated, and the associated method to be invoked. The
method returns HTML to be rendered by the Web browser.

There are no specific requirements for VFP servers used with FoxIsapi, however,
best results are often obtained with use of Local EXE servers since it is easier
to protect global data. The FoxIsapi sample uses a form so that it can obtain a
private data session.

One of the benefits of FoxIsapi is its built-in Pool Manager, which lets you
manage multiple running servers pooled together for maximum scalability. One can
efficiently use FoxIsapi to handle Web sites that need to respond to hundreds of
thousands of Web hits a day.

With all the nice features offered by MTS, one could easily use MTS along with
FoxIsapi. While the improved scalability offered by MTS would not necessarily be
taken advantage because of the FoxIsapi architecture, the Pool Manager support
may provide an even better alternative. One of the nice advantages of using MTS
is its automatic security and transaction support. These are reasons to consider
using MTS with FoxIsapi. Remember, MTS components must be In-Process DLLs
(marked as Multi-Use). One should not need to perform any other special tasks in
order to get these servers to work under FoxIsapi. In addition, one can call
other MTS servers directly within your FoxIsapi servers since these all exist
within same MTS activity.

The Pool Manager controls how servers scale, and how many instances can run
simultaneously. Make sure you test various Pool Manager scenarios to get optimal
results. You can also setup load balancing across multiple computers to make
further scalability improvements. Strategies such as DNS Round Robin schemas are
options to consider for load balancing.

REFERENCES
==========

Microsoft Transaction Server Help; search on: "COM Components"

Additional query words: PGFest600 kbVFp600 kbISAPI kbMTS

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Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbVFPsearch kbAudDeveloper kbVFP600
Version           : WINDOWS:6.0
Issue type        : kbhowto

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