J2SE JRE on a thin client problems!!!!!!!!!!

Question

HELP!
I would like some help regarding a situation where a webstartable application totalling approx 400k as a prototype app is being sent to a thin client. This thin client is a Wyse computer with a 96mb flash card for its hard disk space. The Java app uses the Swing api and JBoss client jars. The application works smoothly on WinNT or Win2000, 256mb, 700Mhz PC installed with J2SE but the problem is that the target client has a Windows NT Embedded OS which only gives around 7.5mb free hard disk space on its flash card. This is a problem as the client OS needs Java 2 JRE which is a whopping 20.8mb. WebStart when installed totals to approx 1.9mb on a PC. So, the complete deployment for the application would reach approximately 24mb going way past the 7.5mb max limit. The client does have IE+MSJava but uninstalling this JVM is not an option as apparently, it is being used for some other app. I am aware of the option of upgrading the machine but that won't go down too well as it will involve upgrading hundreds of clients. Also, this demo needs to show off Swing to the max so that such an upgrade decision can be made. Getting the application+JRE+WebStart deployed within the limit means that there will be a chance for Java to grow on both the client and server side in Carphone Warehouse, one of the top mobile phone retail companies in the UK. However, if this is not achieved then the alternative is that IE will be used to provide an HTML-based limiting, slow user interface for our users in our stores.
A related question I have is whether J2Micro Edition is an avenue that may be useful to explore. I have looked at it a little and as a guess I'd say that the configurations I have found are for too simple for the device targetted by us as it is near enough to a PC's spec except that it has limited chip power, hard disk and memory space.
Please could someone help us with this as it would really promote Java in our company.
regards,
Amar Syed
Carphone Warehouse UK
Email: [email protected]

Answer 1

Well, here are a few suggestions, although I'm not sure how feasible they are at this point...
1) Is it essential that you use WebStart and have the code on the client? That's not really a "Thin client" solution... ;-) Can you refactor your app as a JApplet, and just use the java plugin to run it (~5MB)? This would still enable you to use swing. (You could even just have a "launching" applet in a browser that launches your main GUI JFrame in front of the browser.)
2) I've never used this product, but it's worth a mention - WebCream, by CreamTect (http://www.creamtec.com/webcream/) - it runs your swing app on the server, and sends a DHTML representation of it to the client's browser. Looks pretty convincing from their examples...
3) J2ME is probably not an option, since it doesn't support Swing - it has its own limited API for displaying stuff on mobile devices' small screens.
4) Failing that, there's still server-side java - the JSP/Servlet option, creating your own customized HTML (or super-interactive DHTML) pages and sending them to a browser on the client machine.
Hope some of this helped a little! Let us know how you get on.
M