Accessing a Developing Application

This isn’t a very involved tip, but I could have really saved my butt a few weeks ago when I couldn’t get an updated version of hedmaster deployed, just hours before it was scheduled to go live. This explains how to make a WebObjects application on your development mac temporarily available to outside users, either for testing or a very quick-and-dirty production site.

Add the launch option -WOPort 50000 (or some other port) to your run configuration in whatever IDE you use to develop WebObjects. Normally WebObjects will randomly choose a port to use in this upper range, but it’s nice to have a static port it always launches on. Then open your “Sharing Preference Panel”, go to “Firewall” (you do have your firewall turned on don’t you?), and click “New”. Select “Port Name: Other”, “Port Number: 50000”, and “Description: WebObjects”. Then it is a simple matter of enabling this new firewall rule in order to give others temporary access to your developing application; when you’re done, just turn it off and don’t worry about others snooping in on your “not-quite-ready-for-primetime” build.

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