The ACUCOBOL-GT® Web Runtime is a special 32-bit version of the ACUCOBOL-GT runtime that enables you to run existing ACUCOBOL-GT applications over the Internet. The Web runtime is based on Microsoft's ActiveX technology. It is itself an ActiveX control that you can embed on your Web page. It takes your existing COBOL applications and quickly makes them accessible through browsers that support ActiveX, particularly Microsoft Internet Explorer.
The Web runtime extends the built-in capabilities of Web browsers, allowing you to execute a COBOL program over the Internet without opening and running it as a separate application.
Because it works with existing applications, the Web runtime provides an easy way for you to deploy your applications on the Internet or in an intranet or extranet. For example, if your corporation has employees or distributors dispersed throughout a region, you can give these users remote access to sales and inventory applications via the Web.
The Web runtime is designed to run applications that make use of our AcuServer® or AcuConnect® technologies on the data or application host. While the Web runtime runs only on Windows machines, it can access files or run programs on UNIX and other platforms using these remote file and application server technologies, or through other file system interfaces like the Acu4GL® interface.
Although it would be unusual to do so, you can run the Web runtime without AcuServer and AcuConnect if your application does not need access to remote files. If the Web runtime cannot find a license to AcuServer or AcuConnect, it runs in restricted mode. For more details, please see Licensing Considerations.