Orientation

Topics


How to Use this Manual

Throughout this manual, advice and instructions are offered regarding the use of the RPC Broker and the functionality it provides for VISTA and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software products.

There are no special legal requirements involved in the use of the RPC Broker's Interface.

This manual uses several methods to highlight different aspects of the material:


Symbol

Description

Information icon

Used to inform the reader of general information including references to additional reading material

Caution icon

Used to caution the reader to take special notice of critical information



Commonly Used Terms

The following is a list of terms and their descriptions that you may find helpful while reading the RPC Broker documentation:


Term

Description

Client

A single term used interchangeably to refer to a user, the workstation (i.e., PC), and the portion of the program that runs on the workstation.

Component

A software object that contains data and code. A component may or may not be visible.

Information icon  For a more detailed description, see the Borland Delphi for Windows User Guide.

GUI

The Graphical User Interface application that is developed for the client workstation.

Host

The term Host is used interchangeably with the term Server.

Server

The computer where the data and the RPC Broker remote procedure calls reside.


Information icon

Please see the Glossary for additional terms and definitions.



Assumptions About the Reader

This manual is written with the assumption that the reader is familiar with the following:

No attempt is made to explain how the overall VISTA programming system is integrated and maintained. Such methods and procedures are documented elsewhere. We suggest you look at the various VA home pages on the World Wide Web for a general orientation to VISTA. For example, check out the following web addresses:

http://www.va.gov/vama.htm#DHCP

http://www.vista.med.va.gov/

This manual does provide, however, an explanation of the RPC Broker, describing how it can be used in a client/server environment.

Readers who wish to learn more about the RPC Broker should consult the following:


Broker documentation is made available online, on paper, and in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (.PDF). The .PDF documents must be read using the Adobe Acrobat Reader (i.e., ACROREAD.EXE), which is freely distributed by Adobe Systems Incorporated at the following web address:

http://www.adobe.com/


Information icon

For more information on the use of the Adobe Acrobat Reader, please refer to the "Adobe Acrobat Quick Guide" at the following web address:

http://www.vista.med.va.gov/softserv/infrastr.uct/acrobat/index.html