Protocols

To understand how network security infrastructures affect Windchill, you need to understand the communication protocols within a Windchill system. To understand the effect of network security products on this connectivity, you should understand how clients connect to servers. See the following table:

Client	Example	Communicate Protocols	Comments
Browser with pure HTML user interface	Local search page; properties page	HTTP or HTTPS
Java clients, in the form of Java applets in HTML pages	Windchill Explorer; Product Structure Explorer	Java RMI and HTTP or HTTPS	Java applet or application HTTP requests are performed via the java.net.URLConnection class.
Stand-alone Java applications	Workgroup Manager for Creo Parametric; Workgroup Manager for CADDS; Product Structure Explorer	Java RMI and HTTP or HTTPS	Java RMI attempts to establish direct socket connections from client to server (never the reverse) on well-known server port numbers (configurable). Java RMI may fail over to tunneling over HTTP or HTTPS for applets or Product Structure Explorer.

Windchill servers use other protocols between various server components within a single system. These systems are local to the server hosts or behind the firewalls, where they do not cause additional configuration concerns. These are some examples:

HTTP is used when federated systems communicate (for example, in a federated search, proxy refresh, or content replication). Windchill uses Java RMI only for internal communication between Java classes belonging to a single system (that is, classes from the same codebase).