Altova FlowForce Server 2025 

The FlowForce solution consists of two services: FlowForce Server and FlowForce Web Server. For each of these services, an executable is available that supports administrative commands that can be run at the command line. You can find both executables at the following path:

The executable names are as follows:

Available commands

The command line interface (CLI) can be used for administration purposes (such as licensing, troubleshooting, and internal database backup). The commands supported by the CLI are listed below. The abbreviations FFS and FFW in the table below stand for FlowForce Server and FlowForce Web Server, respectively.

Note that before using some of the commands, you must shut down the FlowForce Server and FlowForce Web Server services (see details below).

Conventions

By convention, this documentation omits the full path of the executable when describing a given command, and uses flowforceserver instead of the executable name, for example:

Where flowforceserver is the path or name of the executable. Note that, if you use an absolute path, you will be able to run commands regardless of the current directory that your command prompt window (terminal) is in. However, if you would like to call the executable just by typing its name, make sure to do one of the following first:

•Change the terminal's current directory to the FlowForce Server installation directory

•Add the directory where the executable is to the PATH environment variable.

 
Both of these scenarios are described in more detail below.

Tips and tricks

If you are new to command line, be aware of the following tips and tricks.

•To find out the current directory where you command line window is, enter pwd on Linux and macOS. On Windows, enter echo %CD%.

•Make use of the Tab key to quickly enter various file or directory paths without having to type them in full. For example, if you type cd c:\prog at the command line, and then press Tab, you will get C:\Program Files automatically pre-filled (or perhaps some other directory under C:\ whose name begins with "Prog").

•When entering paths that contain white space, such as C:\Program Files on Windows, enclose them within quotes.

•If you see a message similar to "This command is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file", you have most likely mistyped a path or command.

•On Linux, make sure that you use the correct case for file or directory names. For example, typing a path such as /home/nikita/downloads will return an error if the directory name is actually /home/nikita/Downloads.

•When typing a path on Linux or macOS, use forward slashes, as opposed to back slashes on Windows.

How to run a command

1.Open a command prompt window.

a.To open a command prompt on Windows, press the Windows key and then start typing cmd. Click the Command Prompt suggestion that appears.

b.To open a terminal on Mac, click the Finder icon, and then select Go > Utilities from the menu. Double-click the Terminal icon in the Utilities window.

c.If you run Linux from a graphical user interface, locate and run the Terminal command as applicable to your Linux distribution. If you run Linux from a command line interface, ignore this step.

2.Enter the full path to the executable, followed by the command you want to run. For example, the command below provides help at the command line.

In the example above, the command help was run without any options or arguments. Other commands may have arguments and options, and those arguments and options could be mandatory or optional. Check the reference section for details about each command.

Calling FlowForce Server in the installation directory

To call the executable without having to type the full path, change the current directory to the directory where the FlowForce Server executable was installed, for example:

You can now run any command by typing just the executable name, for example:

Calling FlowForce Server from any directory

To call the executable from any directory, refer to it using the absolute path. Alternatively, if you want to call the program by typing just the executable name, you can edit the PATH environment variable of your operating system so that it includes the full path to the FlowForce Server installation directory. For ways to change the PATH environment variable, refer to the documentation of your operating system.