Webstart-deployed desktop app, command line and Windows ShellExecute.

Question

Hi all,
I want to be able to associate Windows Shell registry actions (shellExecute from right click menu, double click, and protocols) with a Webstart Java Swing desktop app. This is pretty key to our deployment strategy.
I have two options that I'm pursuing right now.
OPTION A
Unfortunately I'm encountering a few problems:
1) javaws.exe does not accept parameters, therefore I can't pass parameters directly from a Windows command line
2) The only way to get arguments in is through the jnlp file. Sounds like this is possible using a jnlp written by a servlet. But can I just pass GET parameters to my servlet like so?
http://webstart.com/go/?param=value&param2=value2Would that work?
2a) subissue: I want to use JNLP's SingleInstance to make sure that only one of my app is running at any time. It sounds like that JNLP interface also allows for new parameters to be passed in as arguments... but if I pass in parameters to my webstart address, will SingleInstance properly recognize that http://webstart/go and http://webstart/go?param=value are the same program?
OPTION B
So the alternative deployment strategy that I'm contemplating is using webstart, but then deploying a separate .jar to the machine and registering that to be the argument acceptor from Windows. So windows would run something like so:
java -jar cmdLauncher.jar argshereFrom there I will do two things:
a) If the program is already running, then I pass the argument in using network sockets and deal with it like so.
b) If the program isn't already running, then I execute javaws http://myurl and then maybe write to the socket when it's ready. This might really suck since i'll have to poll until the socket is ready.
Anyway, was hoping someone with more webstart internals had some idea as to
a) would a option A (dynamic servlet) work in the way I expect?
b) Is option B the only way to really do it? It certainly seems feasible at this point.
Ideally I just wish javaws.exe allowed passing arguments, and thus this entire problem would not exist. It's a pretty powerful and important feature for WebStart to be able to be a fully featured deployment solution.

Answer 1

OPTION A
Unfortunately I'm encountering a few problems:
1) javaws.exe does not accept parameters, therefore I
can't pass parameters directly from a Windows command
line
2) The only way to get arguments in is through the
jnlp file. Or the SingleInstanceService.
....Sounds like this is possible using a jnlp
written by a servlet. But can I just pass GET
parameters to my servlet like so?
http://webstart.com/go/?param=value�m2=value
2Would that work?Huh? Assuming the servlet that produces the
launch file fir this application is called 'go', and that
servlet returns the correct content-type, and writes
the two params in the URL into the JNLP as
arguments, then.. yes - this should work.
http://webstart.com/go?param=value�m2=value2Note the lack of one '/'.
( I have not had much direct experience with
JNLP combined with servlets, but am familiar
with both. )
2a) subissue: I want to use JNLP's SingleInstance to
make sure that only one of my app is running at any
time. It sounds like that JNLP interface also allows
for new parameters to be passed in as arguments...
but if I pass in parameters to my webstart address,
will SingleInstance properly recognize that
http://webstart/go and http://webstart/go?param=value
are the same program?As I understand from my experience, the URL
becomes redundant, any params that were in
the JNLP are ignored in preference to the single
-open argument. Here is my buildable example..
http://www.physci.org/jws/#sis
a) would a option A (dynamic servlet) work in the way
I expect?Sounds like it.