Rich Internet Applications Development and Deployment > Rich Internet Applications Deployment Advice
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Starting in the Java SE 6 update 10 release, Java Network Launch Protocol (JNLP) provides a unified mechanism for deploying rich internet applications (RIAs – applets and Java Web Start applications). RIAs launched using JNLP have the following powerful capabilities at their disposal:
To avoid browser compatibility issues, the Deployment Toolkit script provides JavaScript functions that automatically generate the HTML required to deploy RIAs. Developers should invoke these functions to deploy their solutions in a consistent fashion across various browsers.
The script exposes a single object, named deployJava, which contains the following public functions:
createWebStartLaunchButton(jnlp, minimumVersion) -
Outputs a launch button for the specified JNLP URL. When clicked,
the button will ensure that an appropriate JRE is installed and
then launch the JNLP application.createWebStartLaunchButtonEx(jnlp, minimumVersion)
- Outputs a launch button for the specified JNLP URL. When clicked,
the button will ensure that an appropriate JRE is installed and
then launch the JNLP application. The JNLP file does not require a
value for the codebase attribute. This function
requires that the Java SE 6 update 18 release be present on the
client. If the Java SE 6 update 18 release is not present on the
client, then the user will be instructed to install the required
software.getBrowser() - Returns the name of the browser
currently running.getJREs() - Returns an array of
currently-installed JRE version strings.installJRE(requestVersion) - Triggers the
installation of the specified requestVersion, the
latest version matching the specified requestVersion,
or the latest JRE. installLatestJRE() - Triggers the installation of
the latest JRE isPlugin2() - Determines if the next generation
Java Plug-in is the default.isWebStartInstalled(minimumVersion) - Returns true
if an installation of Java Web Start of the specified
minimumVersion can be detected. launch- Launches JNLP application.runApplet(attributes, parameters, minimumVersion)
- Ensures that an appropriate JRE is installed and then runs an
applet. setAdditionalPackages(packageList) - Sets
additional package list to be used by kernel installer. setInstallerType(type) - Sets the preferred
install type : null, online, kernel.versionCheck(version) - Returns true if there is a
matching JRE version currently installed (among those detected by
the getJREs() function). writeAppletTag(attributes, parameters) - Outputs
an applet tag with the specified attributes and parameters. The
parameters argument is optional. See the human readable version of the Deployment Toolkit for a detailed description of these public functions. See the following Java Tutorial lessons for more information about deploying RIAs:
In the old Java Plug-in, applets always run with the latest version of JRE installed on a client machine. The old Deployment Security Policy provides more information about this behavior.
With the next generation Java Plug-in introduced in the Java SE
6 update 10 release, you can specify that the online
installer be automatically downloaded when using the Deployment Toolkit, if the specified minimum JRE
version is not already installed on the client. If the specified
minimum JRE version does not exist, the latest version of the JRE
is downloaded from www.java.com.
Applets can be deployed via the applet tag. Parameters to configure deployment may be specified as attributes and parameters to the applet tag.
Use the runApplet() function in
deployJava to ensure that a minimum Java Runtime
Environment is available on a client machine before launching the
applet.
<script src="https://www.java.com/js/deployJava.js"></script>
<script>
var attributes = {codebase:'http://sample-url/Java2D',
code:'java2d.Java2DemoApplet.class',
archive:'Java2Demo.jar',
width:710, height:540} ;
var parameters = {fontSize:16, permissions:'sandbox'} ;
var version = '1.6' ;
deployJava.runApplet(attributes, parameters, version);
</script>
The above sample code shows how to launch an applet with two parameters
(fontSize, and permissions). The permissions parameter
determines if the applet is run in the security sandbox (set value to sandbox),
or if it requires permissions to access resources outside the sandbox (set value to
all-permissions).
To trigger the installation of Java kernel and additional packages, add the following before the deployJava.runApplet() function:
deployJava.setInstallerType('kernel');
deployJava.setAdditionalPackages('javax.swing, javax.xml');
To deploy applets using JNLP, specify the jnlp_href parameter in the applet tag as follows:
<script src="https://www.java.com/js/deployJava.js"></script>
<script>
var attributes = { code:'java2d.Java2DemoApplet', width:710, height:540} ;
var parameters = {jnlp_href: 'java2d.jnlp'} ;
deployJava.runApplet(attributes, parameters, '1.6');
</script>
In this example, java2d.jnlp has the following deployment information
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jnlp href="java2d.jnlp">
<information>
<title>Java2D Demo</title>
<vendor>My Company, Inc.</vendor>
<offline-allowed />
</information>
<resources>
<j2se version="1.4+"
href="http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se" />
<jar href="Java2Demo.jar" main="true" />
<!-- Specify if using JNLP extensions <extension name="SomeExtension"
href="http://some.server.com/some_extension.jnlp" /> -->
</resources>
<applet-desc
name="Java2D Demo"
main-class="java2d.Java2DemoApplet"
width="710"
height="540">
</applet-desc>
</jnlp>
To deploy an applet that runs on the old and new Java Plug-ins, specify the applet tag attributes and JNLP parameters as shown in the example below:
var attributes = {codebase:'http://sample-url/Java2D',
code:'java2d.Java2DemoApplet.class', archive:'Java2Demo.jar', width:710, height:540} ;
var parameters = {fontSize:16, jnlp_href:'java2d.jnlp'} ;
var version = '1.6' ;
deployJava.runApplet(attributes, parameters, version);
The applet tag and JNLP file provide overlapping mechanisms to specify the same information. For example, width, height, code etc. may be specified both as attributes of the applet tag and in the JNLP file. The following rules are applied to various attributes in order to determine the final deployment information:
width and height: These attributes
are always taken from the <applet> tag
and not from the JNLP file. The assumption is that the browser
knows best how big the applet should be on the web page, and only
the browser can support page-relative width and height (for
example, width="50%").codebase: It is recommended that you either:
<applet> tag to implicitly specify the codebase,
orRefer to CodeBase Determination for further information.
code: The code attribute in the
<applet> tag will be ignored.<param> tag are merged with those specified in
the JNLP file. If the same parameter is specified via both the
<applet> tag and the JNLP file, the
<applet> tag's version overrides the JNLP file's
version, except for the java_arguments and
java_version parameters.java_arguments and
java_version parameters are unnecessary in JNLP
applets. The mechanisms in the JNLP file for requesting a JRE
version, or passing command-line arguments to the JVM, are used
instead. Command-line arguments and JRE version requests from the
JNLP file override those specified in the HTML for the applet.permissions parameter for the <applet> tag is ignored. Whether an applet is restricted to the security sandbox or runs with permissions is determined by the <security> tag in the JNLP file. image, boxbgcolor, etc. in the HTML
instead of in the JNLP file, because these are available
immediately upon loading the web page rather than requiring the
JNLP file to be downloaded separately first.
A Java Web Start Application can be deployed simply by creating a JNLP file that describes only the title, vendor, java version, jar file(s), and main class of the application. Here is an example of a Java Web Start application's JNLP file:
<jnlp spec="0.2 1.0"
codebase="http://sample-url/desktop/javawebstart/apps"
href="notepad.jnlp">
<information>
<title>Notepad App</title>
<vendor>Sun Microsystems, Inc.</vendor>
<homepage href="http://sample-url/desktop/javawebstart/demos.html"/>
<description>Notepad Demo Description</description>
<description kind="short">Notepad Demo Short Description</description>
<icon href="images/notepad.gif"/>
<offline-allowed/>
</information>
<resources>
<j2se version="1.3+" href="http://javadl.sun.com/webapps/jawsautodl/AutoDL/j2se"/>
<j2se version="1.3+"/>
<jar href="notepad.jar" main="true" download="eager"/>
</resources>
<application-desc main-class="Notepad"/>
</jnlp>
The application can then be deployed simply by providing a link to the JNLP file on your web page:
<a href="http://sample-url/desktop/javawebstart/apps/notepad.jnlp">Launch Notepad</a>
Many other elements can be added to the JNLP file to control the user experience, security, and update process of the application, or to take advantage of several other features of the Java Network Launching Protocol (JNLP).
If the application wants to use advanced features of JNLP and Java Web Start that were added to a particular version, you may want to ensure that at least that version is installed before launching Java Web Start.
Suppose an application wants to use the SingleInstance Service (introduced in 1.5.0). Instead of just specifying <jnlp spec="1.5.0" .../> and letting the application fail on systems where only 1.4.2 or earlier is installed, you can use the deployJava javascript to ensure that at least version 1.5.0 is installed before launching Java Web Start.
<script src="https://www.java.com/js/deployJava.js"></script>
<script>
var url = "http://sample-url/desktop/javawebstart/apps/notepad.jnlp";
deployJava.createWebStartLaunchButton(url, '1.5.0');
</script>
For an application not having specific version requirements you can just use the function without supplying minimumVersion.
<script>
var url = "http://sample-url/desktop/javawebstart/apps/notepad.jnlp";
deployJava.createWebStartLaunchButton(url);
</script>
Customize the RIA loading experience by providing a splash screen or a customized loading progress indicator to engage the end user during the loading process and to communicate measurable progress information. See the following topics for more information:
If multiple JRE's are required to run various Java Plug-in applets on the same machine, it is recommended to install the JRE's in the order of their versions. The oldest version should be installed first and the newest version installed last. This will avoid the problem of the dynamic clsid {8AD9C840-044E-11D1-B3E9-00805F499D93} being used in an object tag that is not using the latest version of the JRE on the machine.
Starting from JRE 5.0u6 with SSV support, the above is not an issue because the latest version of JRE on the machine will be used. In addition, we have added a new dynamic version clsid {CAFEEFAC-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-ABCDEFFEDCBA}. If the new dynamic clsid is used in the object tag, the latest version of the JRE will be used independently of the installation order of the JRE's.
Installation order should have no effect on Java Web Start. In any case the highest version of the JRE on the system will contain the version of Java Web Start that is run.
Resources accessed in a Java Web Start application or Java Plug-in applet may be cached on the client machine in the Deployment Cache. It is unwise to assume the format or content of this cache, as it may change between versions.
When porting stand alone programs to Java Web Start or Java Plug-in, problems can occur when code has inherent assumptions that it is loaded by the SystemClassLoader. In Java Plug-in resources are loaded by the PluginClassLoader (which extends sun.applet.AppletClassLoader, which in turn extends java.net.URLClassLoader). In Java Web Start resources are loaded by the JNLPClassLoader (which as of JDK 6 extends java.net.URLClassLoader).
Access the ClassLoader being used with:
ClassLoader cl = Thread.getCurrent().getContextClassLoader();
ClassLoader.getResource() returns a URL, but any code that assumes the URL is a JarURL to a FileURL, and then tries to decompose that FileURL to find the underlying file path will fail. The correct way to access resources is to use getResourceAsStream() which will return the correct content whatever type of ClassLoader is used to access the resource. If the resource is already cached, the contents of the resource will be returned from the cache directly, so there won't be extra network connections to the resource itself.
We do not recommend modifying the contents of the Java deployment cache directly. The cache is a private implementation of Java Web Start / Java Plug-in, and is subject to change anytime.
Many applications and libraries try to deploy properties files and other "resources" by including them in the same directory as the jar file that uses them, and then expect to be able to decompose the the URL returned from getResource() to construct the path to these files. Developers argue that this is needed so the application can later modify these property files or other "resources" for use in subsequent launchings of the app. When porting to web deployed applications, they then find they need to repackage these into the jar files of the app, and consider them only the "default" content, and use one of several other mechanisms to persist the modified versions on the client machine (by writing files or by using either the Preference API or the JNLP PersistenceService.)
When applications are large, it can be useful to only download the part of the application that is required to start up, and then download the rest on demand. This process is referred to as lazy downloading.
Java Web Start has support for lazy downloading, but few developers use it. It can be a way to significantly improve the download and startup time in some applications. To effectively use lazy downloading, Java Web Start must be aware which jar to download to resolve a request for a specific resource. Previous versions of Java Web Start required a complex specification of parts and packages to provide this information. Beginning with version 6.0, the same thing can be accomplished using Jar Indexing.
Jar Indexing is a simple and effective way to download only the required jars, and avoid downloading everything when a nonexistent resource is requested. See Jar Indexing.
Java Plug-in has built-in support for lazy downloading (that is, downloading is lazy by default), and also supports Jar Indexing. Developers should also try to NOT use individual classes but package them as JARs instead.
