Windows/UNIX Portability Considerations

BIS is designed to allow web applications and services to be portable between Windows and UNIX-based web servers and operating systems. This means that, with some care, the developer can produce stencils (that is, .srf files) and service programs that do not depend on platform-specific features or characteristics and are, thus, portable. If a portable application is the goal, the following issues must be considered.

• The Handler tag is required for all platforms; however the parameter has no effect when rendered on UNIX. For portability, specify {{ Handler * }}.
• Pathnames referenced by stencils and service programs are subject to the differences between Windows and UNIX file naming conventions/rules. If portability is an objective, they must be chosen carefully. In particular, UNIX file naming is case-sensitive, and Windows is not. This means that a portable application should be consistent in its use of case within file names, and the files themselves should be named in accordance with that consistent use.

  If there is any possibility that a BIS application will be moved between UNIX and Windows, it is a good practice to restrict filenames to all lower-case names without any embedded spaces.

• Pathnames are also subject to the different conventions regarding the directory edge-name separator (/ vs. \). In order to enable portable .srf files, BIS allows the / to be used on both Windows and UNIX everywhere except in the Handler tag. If portability is the goal, the \ character should not be used as a pathname separator.
• There are a few features that are implemented in BIS/IIS on Windows, but have not yet been implemented on UNIX. These are called out with the icon in the section of this document where the feature is described.
• Newer versions of BIS support tags that may not be recognized by older versions.

No application should be assumed to be portable unless it has been tested in every environment to which it is expected to be deployed.