Using NASIS with Citrix

Citrix is a tool that allows you to access applications on a remote server through a web browser. For NASIS it provides greater security and faster performance than NASIS Secure Access, as well as protection against dropped connections.

Here are some tips on using Citrix:

• Logging in to NASIS
• Reports
• Downloading Files
• Online Help
• Re-Connecting to a Dropped Session

Logging in to NASIS

To use Citrix you must first install the Citrix web client as a browser plugin. See Downloading Citrix Client Software.

To run NASIS, start up a browser and go to the NASIS What’s New page, then click on the link to Start NASIS with Citrix.

Connecting to Citrix requires a login through USDA eAuthentication. You should use the same login and password you use for other USDA sites. If you don’t have an eAuth login, see eAuthentication for NASIS for instructions.

After logging in with eAuth you will see another login page for NASIS. On this page you enter the login and password you were using to get into NASIS with NASIS Secure Access, and click the Login button. It will then go the the Applications page.

This page shows the applications that can be accessed through Citrix. Click on one of the icons to start an application. The choices are:

• NASIS starts up the NASIS program.
• DOWNLOAD starts up a program to download files from the server to your workstation, as described below.
• TERMINAL starts up a terminal window to run Unix commands on the server.

The applications page has a fairly short timeout period. Before long a message will appear under Message Center saying that your session is going to expire. You can ignore this message because your NASIS, download. or terminal session will continue anyway. After the timeout, the browser goes back to the login page, and you will have to enter your NASIS login again if you want to start another application. You can also minimize or even close the applications page once NASIS has been started.

Reports

When you are using Citrix the process of printing or saving reports is much simpler because you can send a report directly to your computer or a local printer.

When you save a report, the pop-up box for selecting a file name looks like the picture below. You can click one of the buttons to save to your workstation or save to the server. It is set to save to the workstation initially, and the directory list shows the drives on your computer. Navigate to a directory on your system by double-clicking a drive or directory name, then enter a file name and click Save.

To print to a local printer you need to use the Printer Setup feature in NASIS and install a new printer. If you are not familiar with this process there is an explanation in the NASIS Tutorial, Appendix C. When you define a new port, use the command ctxlpr instead of nasismail. This can be used with or without options:

• To print to the default printer for your workstation, use the ctxlpr command by itself. For example, let’s say you want to use the name “default” to refer to your default printer. Under Define New Port you would enter the line:
  
  default=ctxlpr
  
  Then on the Add Printer page you would link that port to the appropriate printer driver for your local printer.
   
• If you want to print to a network printer at your site that is not your default printer you can also install that printer in NASIS with Printer Setup. Let’s say you want to call this printer “nasisprinter”. On your Windows workstation, go to Start / Settings / Printers and Faxes. Locate the full name of the printer, including the print server. It should be something like PRINTER on SERVER. Then in Define New Port you enter:
  
  nasisprinter=ctxlpr -P \\\\SERVER\\PRINTER
  
  On the Add Printer page, link that port to the appropriate printer driver for the network printer.

After you have installed the links to your local printer(s), select Options from the Printer Setup page and choose a printer. Click Save and Apply. Then when you print a report it should go directly to your printer.

Downloading Files

In NASIS Secure Access there was a tab for downloading files from the server. With Citrix you will no longer have to save and download print files, but you still may need to download a SSURGO export. Because the export program runs in the background it does not have a connection to your workstation and it must save its output on the server.

The download program for Citrix can be accessed in two ways. On the Citrix Applications web page there was a Download icon. Or in NASIS you can go to the File menu and select Download. Both versions work the same way. The screen looks like this:

On the left side, navigate into a directory on the server by double clicking on a directory name, then click on the name of a file you want to download. You can select more than one file by holding CTRL down while you click. On the right side, navigate into a directory on your workstation. If you are downloading a text file, such as a saved report, click the button for “Text file transfer”. Do not use this for downloading zipped files, such as an export.

Click on the rightward pointing arrow to copy the selected files from the server. You can use the leftward pointing arrow to copy a file from the workstation to the server. If one of these arrows is grey it means you don’t have permission to write to that directory.

At some point during these steps you may see a Citrix Security window, as shown below. This is to verify that you want to allow the server access to your workstation. You may click on “Full Access” and “Never ask me again for this site”, and then OK.

If you are an experienced Unix command line user, you will be able to copy files to or from your workstation in a terminal window. The workstation drives can be found by typing: cd $CTXCLIENT.

Online Help

Requesting help in NASIS under Citrix is very similar to help in NASIS Secure Access. When you pick an item from the Help menu or context help, a browser window will come up to display the help information. You can navigate through the help in the browser window. The difference is that under Citrix the browser is actually running on the server. You may notice that it uses Netscape rather than your usual browser. In addition, the server’s firewall restrictions prevent you from going to any web pages other than NASIS.

The help browser does not automatically close when you end your NASIS session. Please close the browser manually before leaving. If for some reason the help browser is not shut down it may remain running on the server indefinitely, although it may not appear on your screen. If this happens, the next time you ask for NASIS help there will be a message box asking you to select a Netscape Profile. Netscape does not allow two browser windows to use the same profile. You can create a new profile and give it any name you like, then it will start up the browser. Please contact the Soils Hotline about cleaning up old browser sessions.

Re-Connecting to a Dropped Session

Citrix does not prevent dropping a NASIS session due to network interruptions, but it makes it possible to get a session back. If your NASIS session is dropped, go back to the Citrix Applications window and click the NASIS icon. If the Applications window is not up, log in again as described above. When you click the NASIS icon it will ask if you want to reconnect to an existing session. Click on Reconnect to go back to your earlier session.

(Note: It takes a little time after a network interruption for the server to recognize that a session has been disconnected. If you try restarting a session too quickly it may start up a new session without asking you to reconnect. Wait a minute and try again. It’s best to reconnect because your old NASIS session my be holding locks on some data, and you won’t be able to edit the data until you reconnect.)