The Non-Formatted Input/Output (NOF) interface is a means by which an external program can send input to, and receive standard output from, your application. NOF is a flexible method for communicating with a system, where multiple transactions can be in process at the same time. With the NOF programmatic interface, both participants in the interface can initiate transactions. The NOF interface method has the following feature:
Sending NOF program.
An external program can initiate a transaction to an application, and the application returns a response.
NOF enables you to input transactions into an application from any source defined in that program, and receive any resulting output in a predetermined but unformatted layout. You can rearrange this output for use in your application.
Communication between the application and an external system are handled by the NOF program, as shown in the figure below:
The NOF.exe file is included as part of the Runtime installation and is located in the Bin folder of your installation directory. You can copy this file to any client machine, and as long as the host name of the server is specified, it runs correctly.
Note: The preferred method for providing user-written, custom access from a client program to Runtime for Windows Operating Systems is to use Component Enabler. The NOF Client Interface functionality is included in Component Enabler, which uses the Remote Access Server.