When developing with LANSA for i and Visual LANSA, you are developing applications in a distributed development environment, i.e. your LANSA development environment involves more than one machine. It is important to remember that:
- LANSA for i hosts the Master Repository that contains all development objects (your application fields, files, forms, etc.)
- LANSA for i is the Master System that maintains all LANSA System information (partitions, languages, users, tasks, security, settings, etc.)
- One or more Visual LANSA development environments (Slave Systems) may connect to the LANSA for i Master System.
The LANSA Host Monitor is used to connect the LANSA for i with each of the Visual LANSA slave systems. The Repository Synchronization, Propagation, Check In and Check Out facilities are used to move the developed LANSA objects and system information between LANSA systems.
The details of the Master System are required as part of the Visual LANSA System installation when you select a Slave System install. A Remote System definition will be automatically generated for the Master System. Specific details pertaining to the Master System can be maintained using the LANSA Communications Administrator described in the Communication Setup Guide.
Before a Visual LANSA Slave System can be used, it must connect to the LANSA for i Master System to be initialized. The System Initialization process will connect to the LANSA for i Master System to transfer the partition, user, security and other system data into the Visual LANSA Slave Systems repository. After System Initialization is completed a user may logon to the Visual LANSA System.
If you are connecting multilingual systems, review Multilingual Text Handling in the LANSA Multilingual Application Design Guide.
The Repository in the Visual LANSA Slave System will be empty (aside from Sample objects) until objects are propagated or checked out from the LANSA for i Master System or new objects are created. (Refer to 5.2.2 Host Monitor and Visual LANSA Slave Repositories.)