Overview

The Server Response File is the key control mechanism of BIS and BIS-enabled web applications and services. Each web application and service will contain at least one unique Server Response File, identified by the extension .srf. A Server Response File is also sometimes referred to as a stencil, since it acts as a stencil during the process of composing the content of an HTTP response to a request from a User Agent.

Server Response Files are can be HTML files augmented by additional information to control dynamic (program generated) content. In these cases, there are two differences between Server Response Files and regular HTML files:

• When the user agent (usually a web browser) requests a .srf file that is contained within a directory served by BIS, the web server automatically loads and activates the BIS Request Handler to serve the file. A Request Handler is a component invoked by a web server such as Internet Information Server (IIS) or Apache to service a particular type of request; in this case, a request for a Server Response File.
• Server Response Files will normally contain additional, non-HTML Rendering Tags that direct BIS to perform various kinds of processing and substitution while the page is being used to render the response content. This process usually includes execution of, and interaction with, ACUCOBOL-GT-based service programs whose execution is controlled and synchronized by BIS.

If Server Response File is used with web services, the Server Response File only contains the necessary tags to allow the Request Handler to route the request to the service program implementing the web service. Care must be taken when creating Server Response Files for web services not to introduce any extra formatting into the response that will confuse the client.