Advantages of Web Start

Me and the company I work for are about the make the final decision what to choose, Java Web Start or just plain JavaServer Pages. I intend to choose the Web Start but still I would like to know some more;
Who has used for quite some time and what is your experience? What are the common problems?
Thanx
EJS

I suggest you search across the sun site and using google. There many articles about this topic.
For example
http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/developers.html
http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/index.jsp
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/javaws/developersguide/faq.html
http://www.vamphq.com/talk/jug-jan-2002/slides.html#jws-16
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-07-2001/jw-0706-webstart.html
file:///D:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/Local%20Settings/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/Content.IE5/U1CR6TAL/256,1,Slide 1
http://servlet.java.sun.com/javaone/javaone2000/pdfs/TS-1473.pdf
I use it for a few reasons.
1) The initial installiation of the my software on a clients machine is very easy (After the Sun VM is installed from the sun site). Simply a link on a web page.
2) I only need to update my software on the server and it is automatically updated on the users machines. Maintenance is easy and it is transparent to the user.
3) After the initial setup it is only necessary to involve the system techs very rarely. (If a JNLP change is required)
4) It offers a secure environment.
I have been very pleased with Webstart.
Problems I have encountered.
1) It is necessary to do some testing under Webstart after development modification and testing. There are some cases where the program may run as a standalone or jar and fail under Webstart. There seem to be few of these and I have been able to address any I have encountered.
2) The security constraints have sometimes taken some time to overcome. For example getting third party or additional jars signed, to distribute, and work can be a pain.
The user forums have been a great help.
rykk

Similar Messages

Java Web Start vs Signed Applet

What is the difference between a web start application and a signed applet.
I tested both but i dont see any advantage to web start.
Someone can tell me ?

christophe,
There is another thread on this topic in this forum...it is titled "Really basic question: why?"

What is the recommended way to launch a web-start enabled Java application?

Hello,
I have a simple web-start enabled Java application, which I can launch from a brower by entering :
https://xx.xx.x.xxx/MyApp/launch.html
This method would show me a page. I then had to click on a link to run my application.
I noticed that I could also launch my program by entering :
https://xx.xx.x.xxx/MyApp/launch.jnlp
This method would run my application right away.
I wonder if there is a recommended way to launch/run a web-start enabled Java application?
Thank you,
Akino

user8708553 wrote:
..to directly launch my application and bypass the HTML page, why is there a need to
display the HTML page and make the user do a click?There are a number of advantages to using the web page. Including..
<li> An explanation to the end-user of what the application does (a 'sales pitch').
<li> Provision of screen shots of the app. (more 'sales pitch').
<li> A description of what security environment it requires, and why.
<li> Access to using the deployJava.js* to ensure the end-user actually has Java installed & has a suitable minimum version of Java, before they ever get access to the launch button/link.
* http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/jweb/deployment_advice.html#deployingApplications

Java Web Start and JAAS

Has anybody tried to use JAAS in an application launched via Java Web Start?
I'm experiencing problems with it. (The application works fine when being launched directly on the client.)
If somebody already successfully tried, please let me know.
Do I need to modify tags in the JNLP file? Do I need to re-configure my webserver or servlet engine?

OK I got a response from the Java Web Start engineering folks. It sounds like using JAAS directly, to login to an ejb app server or whatever, is out of the question with Java Web Start on JDK1.3:
<< begin Sun's email >>
The problem you got is due to JAAS 1.0 (jaas.jar) uses systemClassLoader to load
classes that are defined in the JNLP application jar files, which should be
loaded by the contextClassLoader instead. For more information on classLoading
with JWS, look at:
http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/faq.html#54
http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/docs/developersguide.html#dev
The new JAAS that comes with JDK 1.4 fixed this problem, which uses
contextClassLoader in their class.
Thanks for your interest in Java Web Start.
<< end of Sun's email >>
FYI our workaround: We use a SOAP servlet as a proxy for the app server and we've defined a SOAP xmlrpc api between our client and the application server. This has the advantage of being able to get thru firewalls, as our variant of SOAP is transported on HTTP. Java Web Start installs and starts the SOAP client.
I would hope the JWS folks would search the Sun provided services and see which ones ignore the current thread's class loader and fix them.
David Harvey
Siemens Energy and Automation, Inc.
Gardner Systems Business Unit

Pick Your Web Start App Of The Week

Hi,
I invite you to post your comments about your favorite Web Start app here.
Every week I will profile a different Web Start App at "The Saturn Times" - http://vamphq.com/times - including your quotes.
Post early, post often and help promote all the great Web Start apps out there.
- Gerald

Your jnlp checker Vanessa is quite useful.
Is the source available, because I would like to fix a bug or two I noticed.
Then check out Gentleware's Poseidon.
http://www.gentleware.com/download/Poseidon4umlJWS.jnlp
It is a commercial version of Tigris.org's ArgoUML, a free UML editor,
which is webstartable as well:
http://argouml.tigris.org/files/documents/4/0/0100/ArgoUMLWebStart.jnlp
Interesting about Poseidon was how they implemented key registration for their JWS app, a common task for commercial applications.
However Poseidon unwillingly illustrates limitations of the present JWS implementation - this beast is large (about 10-30 MB).
I loaded it at home via an ISDN link (8KB/s) and it took much time. The download was interrupted for several times, I hadn't start to download again from zero, because the app is splitted into several smaller jars, but still had to reload interrupted jars.
Some days later it turned out that the disk I had the JWS cache on got full. Thus I wanted to move my precious downloads to another partition, which is not possible. You can't move cache contents elsewere, so I had to redownload it again later (ouch).
An interesting bit about ArgoUML is how they speed up their large app by forcing class loading in a background thread. I saw that in their source and want to try out that technique myself soon, perhaps it gives a little speed advantage.
Regards,
Marc

Can we change the label of Java Web start at the time of downloading applic

can we change the label of Java Web start at the time of downloading application?
At the time of downloading application(jar files) java web start shows "Downloading Application" lable on it window , so can we change it so some other..

The 'splash' screen might be of interest to you.
Here is the quick description from the FAQ.
<http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/javaws/developersguide/faq.html#206>
Section 3.5 of the JNLP Spec. has more details on using a splash screen for an application.
(But if you mean changing the very first screen seen when downloading an application the first time, the answer is 'no'.)
Late addendum..
By the way - now I review your question, I note you stress 'while jars are downloading'.
There is another strategy you might take. Mark most of the application jar's as 'lazy' download, get the main GUI on-screen quickly, then use the JNLP API's DownloadService to fetch the rest of the jars, after the application is running.
This has the advantage that, then we can have complete control of whatever is shown on the screen during the bulk of the downloads. We might show ..a 'splash screen', or a dialog with the application name on it, or a progress dialog, ..or any combination of the three.
Edited by: AndrewThompson64 on Oct 22, 2007 3:01 PM

What is Java Web Start?

Hi
After installing Java 2 Platform Standard Edition v 1.4.2, Java Web Start link on the
Windows 98 desktop.
What do I use Java Web Start for?
Please reply soon.
Thanks,
Sincerely,
Egan

Java Web Start software provides a flexible and robust deployment solution for Java technology-based applications based on the Java Community Process program (JCP). The technology is being developed through the JCP program as JSR-56: The Java Network Launching Protocol & API (JNLP), which provides a browser-independent architecture for deploying Java 2 technology-based applications to the client desktop.
Java Web Start technology works with any browser and any Web server. Each application developed for use with the Java Web Start software specifies which version of the Java 2 platform it requires, e.g., version 1.2 or 1.3, and each application runs on a dedicated Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
A main feature of the Java Network Launching Protocol and API technology is the ability to automatically download and install Java Runtime Environments onto the users machine.
For example, an application might depend APIs in Sun's Java Runtime Environment 1.3.0 (or later). When a user first accesses this application, the Java Web Start software will download all the needed files for the application, as well as download the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) if the requested version is not available locally. The ability to automatically download a JRE is one of the key features to ensure robust deployments. It ensures that the JRE that your application is tested on will be available on the user's machine, as well as make it possible to seamlessly upgrade to improved versions of the Java 2 platform over time.
The java.sun.com auto-download feature simplifies Java Web Start deployments because it makes commonly used software readily available for use with Java Web Start. Typically, only an extra line has to be added to a JNLP file to take advantage of this feature. In contrast, without the auto-download feature, developers would be forced to repackage and host the software themselves - adding a significant overhead to the deployment burden. As an added benefit to both developers and end-users, this minimizes the download time for an application since each JRE will be shared between multiple applications.

'Unable to Launch Application Error' - Java Web Start Running Under MS IIS.

I am attempting to render the following .jnlp in MS IE:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<jnlp
   codebase="http://localhost/LottoMadness/"
   href="LottoMadness.jnlp">
   <information>
     <title>LottoMadness Application</title>
     <vendor>Rogers Cadenhead</vendor>
     <homepage href="http://localhost/LottoMadness/"/>
     <icon href="lottobigicon.gif"/>
   </information>
   <resources>
     <j2se version="1.5"/>
     <jar href="LottoMadness.jar"/>
   </resources>
   <application-desc main-class="LottoMadness"/>
</jnlp>I've deployed the .jnlp, .gif, and .jar to MS IIS, running locally on my PC.
When I attempt to render the .jnlp in IE I obtain an 'Application Error' window stating 'Unable to Launch Application'. Clicking details gives me:
com.sun.deploy.net.FailedDownloadException: Unable to load resource: http://localhost/LottoMadness/LottoMadness.jnlp
     at com.sun.deploy.net.DownloadEngine.actionDownload(Unknown Source)
     at com.sun.deploy.net.DownloadEngine.getCacheEntry(Unknown Source)
     at com.sun.deploy.net.DownloadEngine.getResourceCacheEntry(Unknown Source)
     at com.sun.deploy.net.DownloadEngine.getResourceCacheEntry(Unknown Source)
     at com.sun.deploy.net.DownloadEngine.getResource(Unknown Source)
     at com.sun.deploy.net.DownloadEngine.getResource(Unknown Source)
     at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.updateFinalLaunchDesc(Unknown Source)
     at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.prepareToLaunch(Unknown Source)
     at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.launch(Unknown Source)
     at com.sun.javaws.Main.launchApp(Unknown Source)
     at com.sun.javaws.Main.continueInSecureThread(Unknown Source)
     at com.sun.javaws.Main$1.run(Unknown Source)
     at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)I have configured MS IIS for Web Start, by setting the Extension/Content Type fields to .jnlp and application/x-java-jnlp-file.
(The .jnlp is basically from 'Programming with Java in 24 Hours', as this is the book I am learning Java from.)

AndrewThompson64 wrote:
I am not used to seeing references to a local server that do not include a port number.
E.G. http://localhost:8080/LottoMadness/
I have deployed the following HTML (HelpMe.html) to the web server:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
     <title>Untitled</title>
</head>
<body>
Help Me!
</body>
</html>When I attempt to render the URL in IE, I see the page just fine. The URL is use is:
http://localhost/LottoMadness/HelpMe.htmlSo, I think my web server setup and usage is ok.
>
As an aside, what happens if (your MS IIS is running and) you click a direct link to..
[http://localhost/LottoMadness/LottoMadness.jnlp|http://localhost/LottoMadness/LottoMadness.jnlp]
When I click this link I get the error and exception I cited in my previous post.

How to get access to the local file system when running with Web Start

I'm trying to create a JavaFX app that reads and writes image files to the local file system. Unfortunately, when I run it using the JNLP file that NetBeans generates, I get access permission errors when I try to create an Image object from a .png file.
Is there any way to make this work in Netbeans? I assume I need to sign the jar or something? I tried turning "Enable Web Start" on in the application settings, and "self-sign by generated key", but that made it so the app wouldn't launch at all using the JNLP file.

Same as usual as with any other web start app : sign the app or modify the policies of the local JRE. Better sign the app with a temp certificate.
As for the 2nd error (signed app does not launch), I have no idea as I haven't tried using JWS with FX 2.0 yet. Try to activate console and loggin in Java's control panel options (in W7, JWS logs are in c:\users\<userid>\appdata\LocalLow\Sun\Java\Deployment\log) and see if anything appear here.
Anyway JWS errors are notoriously not easy to figure out and the whole technology in itself is temperamental. Find the tool named JaNeLA on the web it will help you analyze syntax error in your JNLP (though it is not aware of the new syntax introduced for FX 2.0 and may produce lots of errors on those) and head to the JWS forum (Java Web Start & JNLP Andrew Thompson who dwells over there is the author of JaNeLA).

Web Start beginner - Web Start front end to existing web app?

Hi all,
I'm new to Web Start, though have been hearing about it for some time. Even after reading the documentation, I have some basic questions about it.
Specifically, is it possible to invoke business methods via something like a Struts ActionServlet through a Web Start gui? That is, say my Web Start app and my existing web-based Struts app were on the same server, could I easily invoke the ActionServlet by passing in a URL with parameters? Thus giving me the ability to completely reuse my 'MC' of my Model-View-Controller app, and just replacing/adding another view ('V')?
Has anyone ever done this? If so, are there good examples?
Thanks in advance,
Mike

WebStart is a deployment mechanism for otherwise perfectly normal Java applications. WebStarted applications run on the client, not the server. WebStarted apps run in a protected environment (the Java sandbox), meaning they can't do potentially harmful things on the client machine such as reading and writing files or creating network connections to any server other than the one they were loaded from, unless you obtain special permissions from the user (the application needs to be signed for this to happen).
So there is nothing that specifically prevents you from using a WebStarted application as a front-end for a Struts webapp. If it makes sense to use a client-side application for that purpose is a question only you can answer.

Web Start and Web Application

I have a scenario as given below.
I have a Central Server hosting a web application(JSPs, jars) in Jetty 6.0.0. I have many branch servers having Jetty 6.0.0 installed and the web application deployed.
Now, I want to update the web application on all my branch servers whenever a modification is done on the Central server.
Can Web Start help me in such a scenario?
So far I understood that Web Start can be used to deployed / update only Client Applications.

Did you ever find a solution?

Very Urgent Unable to Launch Application using Web Start using JDK 1.4.2

Hi all
I am very serious issue i have ejb client swing application that uses
RMI to contact a session bean deployed in JBoss now i want the client app to be installed in the client machine using web start . Also i understand i require security permission to access network resources. so i have signed all the JAR files with same certificate created using self certificate avialiable in JDK by default also in the JNLP file in have included the following tag
<security>
<all-permissions/>
</security>
Now when I launch my application using Web start it gives an error that " Unsigned application is trying to access local resources"
I unable to understand what could be the problem . Please help me with the steps to be followed where in client should be able to RMI call to the server
Thanks in Advance
Naveen

You may have tried this already, but you might have to sign the jars via command line, outside any export process from your IDE.
$ jarsigner {filename}.jar {key from keystore}
I also had problems using webstart and RMI through an RCP
Ben

Java web start running on windows NT4 work station

I have installed java web start on a windows NT4 work station (service pack 6) with a directx v5. I successfuly launch the sun applications such as swing set 2, but I have some troubles concerning our software which used another look and feel than the default one. A system error is raised saying that the library ddraw.dll could not be loaded.
I have unistalled and re-installed directx v5 but the error is still raised.
Does any one can help me to solve this problem ?.
Thank you.

Hello Sim085
thanks for your reply.
Perhaps it would be easier for us to continue the programming with any kind of VisualStudio Produkt ;-), although we dont't had to think about OOP yet!
Because of our new Network-Technology (Terminal-Server) we have to discuss serveral possibilities.
I've read about JSP and ASP.NET, and I want to know if JSP or any kind of JAVA Program will run on a Terminal-Server.
Are there any special aspects I have to know when running JSP on a terminal server from Microsoft? Is it better to program applications in JAVA or in JSP? ...
Thanks
Rasming

Java Web Start running JasperReports

The following is the exception that is thrown when trying to compile an .xml report template to a JasperReport object, from an app that has been deployed via the Java Web Start:
dori.jasper.engine.JRException: Errors were encountered when compiling report expressions class file:
C:\Program Files\mozilla.org\Mozilla\DailyReport.java:4: package dori.jasper.engine does not exist
import dori.jasper.engine.*;
* I have deployed the application properly via Java Web Start; however, when running the application it is not able to compile the xml file to a JasperReport object.
* The .java file is created properly; but the app does not seem to be able to find the dori.jasper.engine.*; library.
* I have signed and included the jasperreports-0.5.0.jar (and it's dependencies) with the app, and have put the path to all of it in the Class-Path of the manifest file.
* NOTE: Just FYI, I am able to run this without any problems under netbeans.

Dear Patrick,
Recently I have used iReports for generating report through java & deploy it through java web start.
I had taken all the measures you had mentioned in your previous replies. But I am not able to view the report. ( might be it is not compiliing)
I am using new version of jasperreports-0.5.3.jar
also through console it is running well.
Also it is not giving any errors. can u have any idea about this.
Might be it is silly mistake I have done.
My code for report generation is :
public class SReportA
     public SReportA()
     try
     JasperDesign jasperDesign = JasperManager.loadXmlDesign("/home/ora/iReport/RSENIORITYLIST-A.xml");
     dori.jasper.engine.design.JRBshCompiler theCompiler = new dori.jasper.engine.design.JRBshCompiler();
     JasperReport jasperReport = theCompiler.compileReport(jasperDesign);
     Map parameters = new HashMap();
     parameters.put("uname","admin");
     Connection con=null;
     try
          Class.forName("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver");
          con=DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:oracle:thin:@158.144.71.219:1521:dbadp","acom","admin123");
     catch(Exception e)
          System.out.println("Exception in test.jsp "+ e);
     JasperPrint jasperPrint = JasperFillManager.fillReport(jasperReport,parameters,con);
     JasperManager.printReportToPdfFile(jasperPrint,"ReportA.pdf");
     JasperViewer.viewReport(jasperPrint,false);
     catch(Exception e){ System.out.println("There is exception here"+ e); }

Unable to run my application using java web start

i have created one application and use java web start to download the application. all the files are succesfully downloaded but when i try to run the application an expected error occur. this only happen in my machine but not in other machine i'm currently using
-jsdk1.4.2
-windows 2000 professional 5.00.2195 service pack 3
-pentium III 870 Mhz
-x86-based PC
-RAM 256 Mhz
Anyone knows why, plz help me with this puzzle

Please post the information from the Web Start "Exception" and "Wrapped Exception" tabs when the error occurs (I assume the error was in fact unexpected ;-)
A blind stab in the dark would be that you don't have write permission to the cache directory on the second machine. Also worth checking that the proxy settings on the second machine are the same as the first (if they are on the same network).

Advantages of Web Start

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for