Chapter 4. The Application Wrapper and SRA

One of UAG's key functionalities is its ability to perform on-the-fly manipulation of data that it relays between a client and backend applications servers. So consider this as something along the lines of a big search-and-replace engine. However, what does this mean in practice? Well, technically speaking, this could serve many different purposes and some of those we'll touch on in this chapter, but in general publishing terms, this functionality actually plays a core role in UAG's operation. The bottom line is that if UAG can parse it, then there's a very good chance of changing it. And to put that into context, this is fundamentally what provides the application-specific awareness that is required to make UAG's entire concept possible. Customizing this process can then help extend this further by allowing you to apply your own optimizations and functionality to individual applications, and in some circumstances, even help solve challengingly complex application publishing issues. In this chapter, we will explore the two content manipulation engines that UAG offers, and how you can take advantage of them. The topics covered here are as follows:

• What content alteration can do for you

• The Application Wrapper and SRA configuration files

• How the AppWrap and SRA engines work

• Having your own way

• AppWrap syntax

• More fun with AppWrap

• SRA syntax