In order for an application to be launched from a web page via JNLP, the page
must include a link to the JNLP file. E.g., to be able to launch application
app.jnlp
on a web site http://www.MySite.com
, the page
needs to include the following link:
<a href=http://www.MySite.com/app.jnlp>Launch the application</a>
It may be the case, however, that Java Web Start is not installed on the user's computer. Thus the page needs to include logic (scripts) to take account of this. In fact, the page should include logic for the following:
Detect if Java Web Start is installed
The scripts, and the HTML for the auto-install page, are discussed below.
Here is the first script that should be run on a web page for launching an application via JNLP:
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
var javawsInstalled = 0; var javaws142Installed=0;
var javaws150Installed=0;
var javaws160Installed = 0;
isIE = "false";
if (navigator.mimeTypes && navigator.mimeTypes.length) {
x = navigator.mimeTypes['application/x-java-jnlp-file'];
if (x) { javawsInstalled = 1;
javaws142Installed=1; javaws150Installed=1;
javaws160Installed = 1;
}
}
else {
isIE = "true";
}
</SCRIPT>
This script looks at the navigator.mimeTypes
object and the navigator.mimeTypes.length
var to decide if the browser is Netscape or IE. If length
is 0,
it is assumed the browser is IE, as with IE the navigator.mimeTypes
array is defined but always empty. If length is non-zero, then the browser is
assumed to be Netscape and the JNLP MIME type is checked to see if it exists
on Netscape. If so, javawsInstalled
, javaws142Installed
, javaws150Installed
and javaws160Installed
are all
set to 1. With Netscape it is not possible to determine which particular version
of Java Web Start is installed, so all four variables are set to 1.
The above JavaScript should be followed by a VBScript that sets variables related to Internet Explorer browers:
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBScript"> on error resume next If isIE = "true" Then If Not(IsObject(CreateObject("JavaWebStart.isInstalled"))) Then javawsInstalled = 0 Else javawsInstalled = 1 End If If Not(IsObject(CreateObject("JavaWebStart.isInstalled.1.4.2.0"))) Then javaws142Installed = 0 Else javaws142Installed = 1 End If If Not(IsObject(CreateObject("JavaWebStart.isInstalled.1.5.0.0"))) Then javaws150Installed = 0 Else javaws150Installed = 1 End If If Not(IsObject(CreateObject("JavaWebStart.isInstalled.1.6.0.0"))) Then javaws160Installed = 0 Else javaws160Installed = 1 End If End If </SCRIPT>
This VBScript is executed if the variable isIE from the preceeding
JavaScript is "true"; i.e., if the end-user's browser is Internet Explorer.
This script instantiates the isInstalled
COM object in JavaWebStart.dll,
and this object determines four things:
After the above two scripts have been executed, the variables javawsInstalled, javaws142Installed
, javawsInstalled150
and javawsInstalled160
will be set to either 1 or 0, as follows:
BrowserjavawsInstalled
javaws142Installed
javaws150Installed
javaws160Installed
Internet Explorer 1 if any version of Java Web Start is installed; 0 otherwise. 1 if Java Web Start 1.4.2 is installed; 0 otherwise. 1 if Java Web Start 1.5.0 is installed; 0 otherwise. 1 if Java Web Start 1.6.0 is installed; 0 otherwise. Netscape Navigator 1 if any version of Java Web Start is installed; 0 otherwise. 1 if any version of Java Web Start is installed; 0 otherwise. 1 if any version of Java Web Start is installed; 0 otherwise. 1 if any version of Java Web Start is installed; 0 otherwise.
An additional JavaScript can be used to decide whether to:
The following JavaScript handles these scenarios:
<script language="JavaScript"> /* Note that the logic below always launches the JNLP application
*if the browser is Gecko based. This is because it is not possible
*to detect MIME type application/x-java-jnlp-file on Gecko-based browsers.
*/ if (javawsInstalled || (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Gecko") !=-1)) { document.write("<a href=http://www.MySite.com/app.jnlp>Launch the application</a>"); } else { document.write("Click "); document.write("<a href=http://java.sun.com/PluginBrowserCheck? pass=http://www.MySite.com/download.html& fail=http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/ea.jsp>here</a> "); document.write("to download and install JRE 5.0 and the application."); } </SCRIPT>
Notes:
|
If javawsInstalled is 1, indicating that Java Web Start is already available
on the client, then the script provides a link to the application's jnlp
file. If Java Web Start is not installed on the client, the script instead provides a
link to the PluginBrowserCheck
program on the java.sun.com
web site. PluginBrowserCheck
checks whether the client uses Internet
Explorer on a Microsoft Windows platform. If so, PluginBrowserCheck
sends the user to the auto-install page http://www.MySite.com/download.html.
(See the next section, Creating an auto-install page,
for how to create an auto-install page for IE running on Windows.) If PluginBrowserCheck
determines the user is not using Internet Explorer on Microsoft Windows, the
user is redirected to the 6.0 JRE general download page on java.sun.com
.
Note: The For a complete list of JRE releases that can be autodownloaded via a
|
The download.html file should be staged on the server side. It contains special OBJECT and PARAM tags that will download to the client an auto-installer for JRE 6.0 . Along with Java Web Start, an ActiveX control will be downloaded to the client. The ActiveX control will launch the application using the newly installed Java Web Start. Here is a sample download.html file:
<HTML> <BODY> <OBJECT codebase="http://java.sun.com/update/1.6.0/jinstall-1_6-windows-i586.cab#Version=6,0,0,0" classid="clsid:5852F5ED-8BF4-11D4-A245-0080C6F74284" height=0 width=0> <PARAM name="app" value="http://www.MySite.com/app.jnlp"> <PARAM name="back" value="true"> <!-- Alternate HTML for browsers which cannot instantiate the object --> <A href="http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/ea.jsp"> Download Java Web Start</A> </OBJECT> </BODY> </HTML>The OBJECT tag fetches a
.cab
file that contains an auto-installer for JRE 6.0.The URL: http://java.sun.com/update/1.6.0/jinstall-1_6-windows-i586.cab will return the latest update release available for the Java SE 6 release.
The string: Version=6,0,0,0 will be used to compare with the wsdetect.dll version, which is registered with the CLSID above. If the local machine has the dll installed and the version is greater than or equal to the Version specified, we will just load the dll in the local machine. Otherwise it will download and install Java from the codebase specified.
The PARAM tags specify the location of the application's
jnlp
file so that it may be automatically launched after the JRE is installed on the client.
app
: Once the Java Web Start Active-X control is installed/loaded, it will invoke Java Web Start to launch the application specified by this URL.
back
: This controls the behavior of the browser after launching the application. It can remain on the current page (download.html in this case) or navigate back to the previous page.
For issues relating to application development see the next chapter, Application Development Considerations.