Any remote machine, or the host machine itself, can connect to the name
server using a copy of the ns.ref file generated previously to provide the IOR. The
remote machine also needs the org.omg.CORBA.ORBInitialHost= entry
to be set to the name of the host machine in the FoamXClient.cfg file,
with a corresponding entry in its /etc/hosts file as described in A.1.1.
(a) Connecting to the name server.
(b) Starting the FoamXCaseBrowser.
Figure A.3:
Running runFoamX.
To start the FoamXJAVA GUI on a remote machine as shown in A.3 a), the
user should run the runFoamX script which should locate the name server
already launched by runFoamXHB. The user will be prompted on the
command line to acknowledge that they wish to connect to this server:
Found server reference $FOAMX_USER_CONFIG/ns.ref Do you want to connect to this server ? (n)
A new name server will be created locally if the user decides not to connect to the
existing name server or if no name server exists, as in the case where runFoamXHB
has not been executed. This is why when running both host browser and GUI
locally it is sufficient to execute runFoamX without running runFoamXHB. Typing,
at a command prompt
runFoamX
opens the JAVA browser window, as shown in A.4. The browser is split into the
following regions:
Menu bar and buttons (top)
containing the operations used in creation,
construction and running of a case;
Case panel (left)
consisting of the case directory tree in the case browser
and the contents of the OpenFOAM cases in the case server;
Editing panel (right, blue)
in which the editing of case entries is done;
Progress history panel (bottom)
a dialogue box which informs on
certain actions that have been performed.
Figure A.4:
FoamX main browser window
By default the case panel will display the host machine on which the name
server is run. If the user wishes to access cases on other remote machines,
they should list the machines in hosts in the .OpenFOAM-1.5/controlDict file. The
FoamX window can be resized in the normal manner; the individual windows
within it can also be resized by clicking on the speckled bars separating the
windows and dragging the cursor across the screen.
There are three ways to pass commands to the browser:
selecting an item and double-clicking, typically to open its contents;
selecting an item and clicking the right mouse button brings up a menu
of operations which can be performed on that item;
selecting an item from the menu bar and buttons can perform other
operations.
Note that if the cursor is held over any menu button for one second a short
description of the button’s use appears in a small dialogue box below the base of
the cursor.
