BatchServe Component Overview
Related Articles: BatchServe Main Page - BatchServe Component Overview - Installing the BatchServe Server - Installing the BatchServe Client - Changing Net View Security Settings for BatchServe - Upgrading an Existing BatchServe Server Installation
BatchServe is designed as a client-server application. The server component holds all the data and doubles as a web server for the user interface. The client component, which you install on every computer used for processing, monitors the server regularly and controls SOFTIMAGE|XSI’s batch process (xsibatch -script).
The BatchServe Server (Current Version: 1.5.4)
The BatchServe Server runs on Win32 operating systems (Windows 2000, Windows XP) and requires the following Open Source applications:
- Web Server (Apache): All the BatchServe development was done using Apache. Although other web servers, including Microsoft IIS, iPlanet/Netscape, Zeus, PWS, and Xitami, also support PHP, only Apache is supported for use with BatchServe.
The current version of BatchServe was tested on Apache version 1.3.29. It is recommended that you download the latest version of the 1.3.x series.
- Hypertext Pre-processor (PHP): PHP is a server-side, cross-platform, HTML embedded scripting language. All BatchServe server files were written in PHP.
The current version of BatchServe was tested on PHP version 4.2.3. It is recommended that you download the latest version of the 4.2.x series.
- Relational Database (MySQL): All BatchServe development was done using MySQL. Though PHP supports a number of other RDBMS such as Microsoft SQL, mSQL, Oracle, Ovrimos SQL, PostgreSQL, and possibly others through ODBC, BatchServe only supports MySQL.
The current version of BatchServe was tested on MySQL version 3.23.58. It is recommended that you download the latest version of the 3.23.x series.
These applications are not included as part of the BatchServe installation. You must download and install them separately. You can find these applications on their respective websites:
- MySQL - http://www.mysql.com
- Apache - http://httpd.apache.org
- PHP - http://www.php.net (including the php_gd graphic extensions)
These links also appear on the BatchServe server Home page.
The BatchServe Client
The BatchServe Client also runs on Win32 operating systems (Windows 2000, Windows XP). There are three separate components of the BatchServe client:
- Win32 Service: This service keeps the client connected to the server and starts the XSI batch process if it finds a job. Using a service for these tasks means that you can run the BatchServe client even if no user is logged into the client machine.
- Tray Icon Program: When a user is logged in to the client machine, the tray icon program provides an interface to control the BatchServe client.
- XSI Client Script: Once XSI is started, the client script maintains the connection with the server to avoid loading scenes unnecessarily. The Client script uses ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) to connect to the server, so you will need to install the MySQL ODBC Driver on all client machines.
