Uniface Application Middleware

Uniface middleware consists of various tools and processes that allow a distributed, heterogeneous collection of objects to work together over a network. The Uniface Router and Uniface Servers provide the basis for client applications (whether desktop, mobile, or web) to call in to the Uniface server architecture, and to call out to other technologies such as SOAP web services, RESTful web services, other URLs, or mail services.

Uniface's collection of middleware tools and processes form part of its Universal Request Broker (URB) architecture. The URB supports bidirectional, synchronous, and asynchronous communication between components, which can access data in distributed databases and can be configured to run on any supported platform. The URB also enables Uniface to integrate with third-party middleware and components, such as COM and .NET components, SOAP-based and RESTful web services, and so on. For more information, see Universal Request Broker and Integrating with Other Technologies .

Note:  The Uniface middleware is intended for use in deploying distributed Uniface applications. It should not be used in a shared development environment where the Uniface repository is updated by remote developers. There are no facilities for merging updates, and problems can arise when testing forms that use modified entity definitions handled by shared servers.

For distributed Uniface applications, the heart of the URB lies in the Uniface Router and Uniface Server, supported by network and database connectors, and asynchronous message facilities.

  • The Uniface Router is a multithreaded process (urouter) that listens for requests from Uniface client applications and routes them to the appropriate Uniface Server (starting and stopping Uniface Servers as required). It also passes asynchronous messages between various Uniface applications. For more information, see Uniface Router .
  • The Uniface Server is a server-based process that enables Uniface clients to access remote resources or execute remote components. It can act as a data server, a file server, or an application server, and also provides web application support. For more information, see Uniface Server and Web Application Server.
  • Components can send asynchronous messages (also known as postmessages) to other components running in the same Uniface Server process, in other client processes, and in shared Uniface Server processes via the Uniface Router. Uniface also provides a Message API Utility that enables non-Uniface applications to send messages to Uniface applications. For more information, see Asynchronous Messaging.
  • The TCP and TLS network connector enabled Uniface client applications, routers, and servers to communicate with each other over secured or unsecured networks . For more information, see Network Support.
  • Database connectors make it possible for client applications and Uniface Servers to access data in a large number of different database systems. For more information, see Database Connectors.