Starting the Web Server

This documentation assumes that you know what MAT_PKG_HOME refers to. See the "Conventions" section in your platform-specific instructions in the "Getting Started" section of the documentation.

All platforms

You have two options for running the Web infrastructure. In all cases, you can run the MATWeb script in a shell; in some cases, if your distribution comes with the appropriate tools, you can start up a multipane terminal application using the --spawn_tabbed_terminal option to MATWeb. To find out whether tabbed terminals are available in your installation, invoke MATWeb with the --help option and consult the details for --spawn_tabbed_terminal.

If you have tabbed terminals and you choose to use them, you'll be presented with four panes:

Either in pane 1, or in the console if you've just started up MATWeb without the multipane terminal, you'll see something like this:

The workspace key is an element of workspace security; a new key is generated each time the user starts the Web server (but is preserved if the user issues the "restart" command in the command loop).

The MAT Web server is NOT SECURE

The MAT Web server is not an enterprise-secure implementation, and will never be one. It does not use SSL; in workspace mode, it does not perform any sort of user authentication beyond the workspace key; it does not provide any security logging or traceability. You should assume that anyone who has access to your network can see your Web server traffic, and either observe or (in the case of workspaces) overwrite your data.

Unix

Once you've built the toolkit, if you have a tabbed terminal application, you can start up the server in a tabbed terminal as follows. If you don't have a tabbed terminal application, MATWeb will gracefully revert to a single terminal:

This will launch the mrxvt tabbed terminal application. To shut down the server, exit the mrxvt application (closing the window ought to do it).

If you prefer to run your application in a single terminal, or you want to specify additional arguments to MATWeb, or if you don't have a tabbed terminal application, do this instead:

You'll see the output of the Web server console, interspersed with other status messages from the Web server. To shut down MATWeb, type "exit" or hit Ctrl-C.

MacOS X

This will launch the Terminator tabbed terminal application. To shut down the toolkit, exit the Terminator application via Terminator -> Quit Terminator (or Apple-Q). You'll be prompted with warnings about the applications that will be shutting down; press the Close button for each warning.

If you prefer to run your application in a single terminal, or you want to specify additional arguments to MATWeb, or if you don't have a tabbed terminal application, do this instead:

You'll see the output of the Web server console, interspersed with other status messages from the Web server. To shut down MATWeb, type "quit" or hit Ctrl-C.

Windows native

Once you've built the toolkit, you can start it up by double-clicking on %MAT_PKG_HOME%\bin\mat_controller.bat on your desktop. This will start up a cmd window, and then, if you have a tabbed terminal application, a few seconds later, it'll shut down, and you'll see the Console tabbed terminal application showing the four panes described above. To shut down Console, press the "x" in the upper right corner.

If you prefer to run your application in a single terminal, or you want to specify additional arguments to MATWeb, open a cmd shell, via Start -> Run -> "cmd". In this shell, type the following at the command prompt if you want to start up your server in a single console:

If you choose the console option, you'll see the output of the Web server console, interspersed with other status messages from the Web server. You can exit this application by typing "exit" or hit Ctrl-C.