Note: This Java deployment guide describes features released prior to the Java SE 6 update 10 release. See Java Rich Internet Applications Development and Deployment for the latest information.
Specification-Version and
Implementation-Version FormatsSpecification-Version and
Implementation-Version follow these rules for Sun
products, and third-party products must follow the same rules for
Java Plug-in to make reliable decisions about whether an extension
is up-to-date or not:
The Specification-Version string will be of the
form:
n1.n2[.n3]
where n1, n2, and n3 are
integers, n1.n2 is the major version number,
and optional n3 is the minor version number
(also referred to as the maintenance version number).
The Implementation-Version will be of the same form
initially but may:
_")
n4n5 to indicate a patch version number (also
referred to as the update version number)-") a
milestone name (ea , alpha,
beta, rc ...), which may also include a
trailing integer number (ea1, beta2,
rc1 ...).Both patch version number and milestone name may not be used
together in the Implemenation-Version string.
The general form is as follows:
n1.n2[.n3][_<patch_number>|-<milestone_name>]
Integers (n1,n2, n3 ...),
letters, dots, hyphens, and underscores , may be used in the
version format as described above; no other characters
("*", "+" ...) are
allowed.
Note that the Specification-Version and
Implementation-Version numbers are in theory
independent, though in practice they are often in sync with each
other.
Examples:
Specification-Version examples: 1.3,
1.4
Implementation-Version examples:
1.3.1, 1.4.0_02,
1.4.0-beta3
While these are the rules, it is always a good idea when using a
third-party extension JAR to examine its
MANIFEST.MF file to see what actual values are in it.
If it does not follow these rules, you may need to change your
applet JAR MANIFEST.MF accordingly or
alter the extension JAR.
