Launching WindX from a Browser

Browser Launching

One important feature of the Client Server interfaces is the ability to allow WindX to be initiated directly from a browser. This feature allows you to create Web pages that can directly launch a client connection to a host system.

To accomplish this, a few entries need to be added into the Client Windows Registry. These Registry entries enable the automatic launching of a client connection in response to initiating an URL request whose prefix is "windx://".

The general format of the URL request is:

windx://server/port#/prog args

If the server is running the Application Server:

windx://APS:server:port#/prog args

If the server is running the PxPlus Simple Client Server (see Note below):

windx://server@scs/port#/prog args

If you want to connect to the server using SSH (see Note below):

windx://server@sshPPPP/userid/password

Note:
:scs and :ssh are no longer allowed in the URL when running WindX due to security changes implemented by Microsoft.

As of PxPlus 2025, :scs and :ssh have been replaced with @scs and @ssh.

Where:

	server	IP address/name of the server running the host program
	port#	Port address being monitored by the above
	prog args	Name of the program to run and any associated arguments replacing all spaces with + or %20
	PPPP	Port to use if not the standard port 22
	userid	Optional User ID to sign on with
	password	Optional password to use

Example:

windx://myhost/10000/*winstar + -arg + order + pizza/pizza.en
windx://myhost/10000/*winstar%20-arg%20order%20pizza/pizza.en

Note:
The URL must adhere to normal URL encoding rules and not contain spaces. Insert + (plus signs) or %20 in lieu of spaces between or within any parameters in the URL.

Optionally, when using the NTHost or Simple CS Server, the port# can have a suffix of ";Show" appended to it. This will cause the main window to be displayed as opposed to minimized when the application launches. Normally, you will use this option when you want to run a simple text style application that will run from the main window.

To provide backward compatibility where Web pages may not have a type specification, the system will first try *NTHost but is able to detect and switch to either a Simple CS or Application Server interface depending on the host service provided.

Registry Entries

The Windows registry entries required to make this work are as follows:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\windx
	<default> = "URL:windx" EditFlags = hex: 02,00,00,00,00 URL Protocol = ""
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\windx\shell
	<default> = ""
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\windx\shell\open
	<default> = <none>
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\windx\shell\open\command
	<default> = "c:\\pxplus\\pxplus.exe -MN *url -arg %1" The pathname here will be adjusted to point to the proper EXE on the client machine.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\URL\Prefixes
	windx. = "windx://" A dot ( . ) follows 'windx' in the above registry entry.

Note:
The normal Windows installation process will automatically add all the required registry entries needed to service the windx:// requests.