Install the Mobile Access web server add-on for CGI

Install the Mobile Access web server add-on for any web server that supports the Common Gateway Interface (CGI).

Note: The Mobile Access web server add-on for CGI can be installed on most distributions of Linux, but if your target device runs Linux, you probably want to install the platform-agnostic IoT View software, which includes its own version of this add-on. For more information, see IoT View.

Before you begin this task, you must have already installed the full Edge HMI software on your computer, even if you only use it for project development, because it includes the redistributable Mobile Access web server add-on files.

Also, you must properly install, configure, and run a CGI-enabled web server on the same computer that hosts your project runtime server. There are many such web servers available for many different platforms, so it is beyond the scope of this documentation to cover all of the possible installation and configuration procedures.

The most widely used, CGI-enabled web server is Apache, which can be installed on Windows (including Windows Server and Windows Embedded) as an alternative to Windows' built-in web server, Internet Information Services (IIS). For more information, see Install and configure Apache for Windows.

IIS also supports CGI, but you must use IIS Manager to enable and configure it, and that is beyond the scope of this documentation. For more information, consult the documentation for IIS.

When you configure the web server, note the locations of its cgi-bin and document root directories. If you followed the preceding instructions to install and configure Apache for Windows, you should have these directories on your target device:

The cgi-bin directory contains supplemental scripts and programs that enable certain features of the website. The Mobile Access web server add-on is such a program.

The document root directory is the "top level" of the website, which means that when a user goes to the website (for example, http://www.mywebsite.com/), they actually go to that directory on the computer. You can reconfigure the web server to change the directory, but in most cases, that should not be necessary.

Keep in mind that while the following steps use Apache for Windows as an example, they should apply to any CGI-enabled web server that has cgi-bin and document root directories.

To install the Mobile Access web server add-on for CGI:

1. Locate the web server add-on files in your program folder, and then copy all of them to the web server's cgi-bin directory.

   The default location on your computer for the add-on files is:

   C:\Program Files (x86)\AVEVA\AVEVA Edge2026\Redist\WebAddOn\CGI\*.*

   The add-on files include the CGI process itself and several associated libraries. Make sure you copy all of them to the cgi-bin directory.

   For example, using Apache for Windows:

   C:\Apache24\cgi-bin\WebCGIProc.exe

2. Locate the Mobile Access web files in your program folder, and then copy the entire MA folder to the web server's document root directory.

   The default location on your computer, the MA folder, is located at:

   C:\Program Files (x86)\AVEVA\AVEVA Edge2026\Redist\MobileAccess\MA

   After you have done this, the MA folder should be a sub-directory of the document root directory. For example, using Apache for Windows:

   C:\Apache24\htdocs\MA\

3. Edit the Mobile Access configuration file (config.js) to point to the CGI process:

   1. Locate the Mobile Access website configuration file.

      For example, using Apache for Windows, the file should be located at:

      C:\Apache24\htdocs\MA\sma\config.js

   2. Open the configuration file in a text editor, and then find the servicesUrl setting:

      window.sma.configSettings = {

      "servicesUrl": "service"

      };

   3. Replace "service" with the URL of the CGI process (WebCGIProc.exe) that you previously copied to the cgi-bin directory.

      Using Apache for Windows as an example:

      window.sma.configSettings = {

      "servicesUrl": "/cgi-bin/WebCGIProc.exe"

      };

      Please note the URL is relative to the "top level" of the website, and it is not the same thing as the file path on the computer.

   4. Save and close the configuration file.

4. For Apache running on Windows Embedded only, do the following:

   1. Locate the Apache configuration file (httpd.conf).

      If Apache was installed at its default location, the configuration file should be located at:

      C:\Apache24\config\httpd.conf

   2. Open the configuration file in a text editor, and then use the editor to find and change the following settings:

      AcceptFilter http none

      AcceptFilter https none

      EnableMMAP off

      EnableSendfile off

      If a setting is "commented out" — that is, prefaced with a hash character (#) so it is not processed — delete the hash character.

   3. Save and close the configuration file.

You might need to restart the web server for these changes to take effect. For example, assuming that you are running Apache as a Windows service (as described in the preceding topic), open a Command Prompt window and then enter the following:

httpd -k restart

To confirm the files were successfully installed, run your project and then try to log on to the Mobile Access web interface. (This assumes you have configured Mobile Access in your project and your project is running, of course.) For more information, see Log on to the Mobile Access web interface.

If it does not work, make sure you have selected the Enable CGI option in the Mobile Access Configuration worksheet in your project. For more information, see Configure the global settings for all areas.

Finally, you should repeat this task whenever you upgrade the full Edge HMI software, to ensure you are using the latest version of Mobile Access.