OBJECT/EMBED
Tag
This section includes the following topics:
The intranet is a more controlled environment than the internet, and you can
decide whether you want to deploy your applets via the APPLET
,
OBJECT
, or EMBED
tags. This chapter deals with deployment
using the OBJECT
or EMBED
tags.
Java Plug-in can be deployed in an intranet environment so that users can download and install it without leaving the firewall. Deployment details for Internet Explorer and supported Mozilla browsers are described below.
Note You need to understand the Java Plug-in tagging structure to understand the discussion below. The tagging structure is explained in Using OBJECT, EMBED and APPLET Tags in Java Plug-in.) |
To deploy Java Plug-in in intranet environments with IE, you need to download
and store the Java Plug-in binary file on a web server. Then you need to modify
the codebase attribute inside the <OBJECT> tag in the
HTML file to point to the binary. For example, if you want to use the Java Plug-in
binary file in http://my_company.com/plugin/
, then you should specify
the codebase attribute as
"http://my_company.com/plugin/jre-6-rc-windows-i586.exe#Version=6,0,0,99"
(For Internet deployment the above might use a .cab
file rather
than .exe
. The .cab
file points to an .exe
and provides a download progress bar.)
Note the version number in the above URL. For Java Plug-in 6, the version
number is 6,0,0,99
. This version number changes for each release,
and you must change the version number inside the <OBJECT> tag
if you want to specify the newest release of Java Plug-in.
The filejre-6-rc-windows-i586.exe#Version=6,0,0,99
is the same binary that
can be download directly from the Java Software web site. It is digitally signed
with a VeriSign digital signature signed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. If you are
using the Java Plug-in HTML Converter, you can simply change the conversion
template file to specify the latest Plug-in version (the CabFileLocation
variable) before the conversion. For information about modifying the conversion
template, consult the README file in the Java Plug-in HTML Converter. Note that
CabFileLocation
can be the location of the .cab
file
or the .exe
.
Once you have implemented these changes, when a machine that does not have Java Plug-in installed browses an HTML page with IE, IE will look into your predefined location (http://my_company.com/plugin in the example) and download Java Plug-in. Notice that there is no need to download Java Plug-in over the firewall if the web server is inside the intranet.
Note: RecommendationsThe following is recommeded for long-term reliability:
|
For supported Mozilla browsers you must use the APPLET tag.
To deploy Java Plug-in in intranet environments with Mozilla, you need to download and store the Java Plug-in binary file on one of your web servers. Then you need to set up a Java Plug-in Download page and modify the pluginspage attribute in the EMBED tag to refer to this page. For example, if you have set up the Java Plug-in Download page at "http://my_company.com/plugin/" and the page is called plugin-install.html, you can specify the pluginspage as "http://my_company.com/plugin/plugin-install.html". The Download page should have options to download different versions of Java Plug-in, such as for Windows and Solaris.
When a machine that does not have
Java Plug-in installed acceses a web page, a
missing-plugin icon is displayed on the HTML page. When the user clicks on this icon,
Mozilla browser directs the user to your predefined Java Plug-in Download Page (http://my_company.com/plugin/plugin-install.html
in this example). Notice that there is no need to download Java Plug-in over
the firewall if the web server is inside the intranet.
There are two ways that Java Plug-in might be installed in the Intranet environment with Unix or Linux:
In either case, for supported Mozilla browsers the environmental variable NPX_PLUGIN_PATH must be set to point to the Java Plug-in. When Java Plug-in is installed on the local machine, then the user needs to set this variable to point to the Java Plug-in in the JRE on the local machine. For a shared installation, the system administrator needs to determine the shared location of the Java Plug-in in the shared JRE on the NSF drive and set the user profile for every machine to point to this via NPX_PLUGIN_PATH.