In a Pipeline Pilot protocol, there is sometimes the need to access the URL for the server where the protocol executes. For example, this could be useful for a callback or to create a hyperlink in a report or email.

A common way to get the server URL is to use the @ServerRoot or @ServerSSLRoot global properties but these will not always return the values you expect. For example, if the protocol is run from the Pipeline Pilot Pro Client, you will get values like:
@ServerRoot = http://plp.mydomain.net:9944/
@ServerSSLRoot = https://plp.mydomain.net:9943/

But if the same protocol is run as a scheduled task, you will get:

@ServerRoot = http://localhost:9944/
@ServerSSLRoot = https://localhost:9943/

If the protocol for example sends an email with links to some reports created by the protocol, these links will not work from the end-users computer if they use localhost as the server name. In this case, the solution is to instead use the @'/pilot_settings/ROOT' and/or @'/pilot_settings/SSLROOT' global properties.

In short:
* @ServerRoot and @ServerSSLRoot are URLs as the client would see them.
* @/pilot_settings/SSLRoot and @/pilot_settings/Root are URLs as as seen from within a server scisvr process.

Below is some additional information compiled from BIOVIA R&D sources about how the mentioned global properties are created.

The values of these global properties might differ depending on the configuration, e.g. if you use a load balancer, reverse proxy, grid engine etc.

Within Pipeline Pilot servers, there are multiple ways to refer to the server. @ServerRoot and @ServerSSLRoot are URLs as seen from the client (outside the reverse proxy). @'/pilot_settings/ROOT' and @'/pilot_settings/SSLROOT' are URLs as seen from within a job's scisvr process (inside the reverse proxy). For instance, if your server is called plp.mydomain.net and is listening on 9943 and 9944 and is configured behind a reverse proxy called revproxy.mycompany.com which is only listening on HTTPS port 8080, then for a client request made via the reverse proxy these would be each of the global values:

@ServerRoot: https://revproxy.mycompany.com:8080/ (NOTE: this URL is an HTTPS URL because the reverse proxy only has HTTPS available)
@ServerSSLRoot: https://revproxy.mycompany.com:8080/
@'/pilot_settings/ROOT': http://plp.mydomain.net:9944/
@'/pilot_settings/SSLROOT': https://plp.mydomain.net:9943/

If a client is inside the reverse proxy and connected directly to the PLP server (for instance, runprotocol.exe -server plp.domain.net "My Protocol"), the globals would actually be different because the URLs are set up for each job based on the hostname which the client used:

@ServerRoot: http://plp.mydomain.net:9944/
@ServerSSLRoot: https://plp.mydomain.net:9943/
@'/pilot_settings/ROOT': http://plp.mydomain.net:9944/
@'/pilot_settings/SSLROOT': https://plp.mydomain.net:9943/

If a runprotocol command is issued on the server itself with the following "runprotocol -server localhost", the globals would be configured as follows:

@ServerRoot: http://localhost:9944/
@ServerSSLRoot: https://localhost:9943/
@'/pilot_settings/ROOT': http://plp.mydomain.net:9944/
@'/pilot_settings/SSLROOT': https://plp.mydomain.net:9943/