I've found exactly the same question I just made but it is 7 years old; so I'd like to have an "updated" answer if it is possible. Thanks.
Old days
As commented by TrogDor, there were previously two ways to deploy a Swing app through the web:
Java Applet technologyYour app would appear within a rectangle on the web page, within the browser.
Java Web Start technologyClicking a link on a web page would download a copy of your Swing app to the user’s local machine, where your app would then be launched locally using a locally-installed JVM. So your app runs separate from the web browser. This click-to-download-and-run process is defined by Java Network Launching Protocol (JNLP).
Both of these are being phased out.
➥ For details, see the white paper Java Client Roadmap Update published by Oracle, updated 2020-05-11.
Nowadays
The modern approach is to build a Swing and/or JavaFX app, then deploy by using a packaging tool to include a JVM. You end up with a complete self-contained self-launchable application.
This means you need multiple builds, one app for each platform your users may deploy on (macOS, Linux, BSD, Windows, and so on). While that is an additional burden to you, the flip-side is that you control exactly what version of Java is being used to run your app.
Because of the Java Platform Module System (JSR 376) in Java 9 and later, you can now strip down the bundled JVM and libraries to include only the parts actually used by your particular app.
The build tools for packaging your app have been rapidly evolving in recent years. So be sure to do your research to find the most robust and modern tooling.
Alternatives
You might consider any of these alternatives:
Remote execution
OpenWebStart A re-implementation of Java Web Start
GraalVM Ahead-of-time native-code compilation of your Java app
Vaadin Flow Using Java to build desktop-style apps delivered as web apps
Remote executions
Some vendors may offer a product or service to execute your Swing app remotely while displaying the user-interface within a web browser.
One such company is WEBSWING Ltd. with their Webswing product.
OpenWebStart
You might be interested in a separate implementation of Java Web Start technology.
While Oracle is phasing out Java Web Start, there is an open-source implementation of JSR 56: Java Network Launching Protocol and API called OpenWebStart. See GitHub. This project is currently maintained by the company Karakun, based on the IcedTea-Web core functionality developed at Adoptium (née AdoptOpenJDK).
GraalVM
A cutting-edge alternative is to build an entirely native-code ahead-of-time compiled version of your app using GraalVM.
Vaadin Flow
An entirely different way to build a web app by using Java is the Vaadin Flow framework.
You specify your user-interface layouts with widgets in a manner quite similar to Swing, specifying an arrangement of widgets (buttons, fields, labels, etc.). You can do so using your choice of straight Java code, an XML-based description language, or a visual design tool.
At run-time, Vaadin automatically automatically generates the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript necessary to render your app remotely on the client user’s machine within a web browser. So, you have pure Java on the server-side, and no Java on the client-side, just Web standards technologies built into all modern browsers.
More info
All of this has been covered many times already on Stack Overflow. So search to learn more.
For tips on obtaining a JVM to bundle with your app, see How to get java 11 run-time environment working since there is no more jre 11 for download?.
Nowadays you can run Swing app on server with UI in the browser. You can find example here: https://github.com/JetBrains/projector-demo.
Update: JetBrains ceased development of Projector as a separate product. See their notice. They have incorporated the technology for their own use in their Gateway product for remote execution of their IDE products.
Related
I read here that it's possible to deploy a JavaFX application into a Web Browser:
embed-a-javafx-application-in-a-html-webpage
Now I got stuck at the beginning when he talks about using the java packager to create an executable .jar file. I'm using Maven which uses JavaFX 18, so I followed this tutorial on how to package a java project
java-packager-with-jdk11
Here I got confused with the tools he uses. I downloaded the listed tools and moved the jpackager files into the according directories. Still in cmd it gives me an "Error during initialization of boot layer": jdk.packager not found.
It's pretty worth it knowing how to create a Package from a Java Project, but is this the proper way?
tl;dr
No, not realistic.
You have a choice of alternatives.
Legacy technologies
That page uses legacy technologies, Java Web Start and Java applets.
Java applets have been phased out by all web browser makers, so Oracle consequently decided to phase out the technology. Java applets were first deprecated in Java 9, and later deprecated for removal in Java 17.
Oracle no longer expects end-users to have a standalone JRE or JDK installed on their computer. So Java Web Start is no longer available by default for the consumer market. Java Web Start is no longer included in Java 11+.
However, an open-source implementation continues in the OpenWebStart project. For some environments, such as corporations or schools where the installed base of computers is centrally managed, OpenWebStart may be a useful way to distribute apps.
Ship your app with JVM bundled
Oracle now expects desktop apps and mobile apps to bundle a JVM within their product. This does mean the app must be built in editions, one edition for each supported chip architecture and OS, but also allows the app to be tested with the same JVM that will eventually run the app.
For more info, see the Oracle white paper (PDF format), Java Client Roadmap Update of 2020-05.
New tooling is available to support this JVM-within-app packaging:
Java Platform Module System (JPMS) in Java 9+.
jlink in Java 9+.
jpackage in Java 16+.
Search Stack Overflow to learn more about packaging JavaFX/OpenJFX apps for distribution. Many Questions and Answers have already been posted on the topic. The topic is rapidly evolving, including cutting-edge approaches such as using GraalVM for ahead-of-time compilation to run native.
Vaadin Flow
If you want to build a single-page web app written in pure Java without you needing to learn HTTP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, WebSockets, Push, etc., consider using Vaadin Flow. This open-source framework is based on venerable Jakarta Servlet technology.
You write Java code similar to that in JavaFX, defining forms by specifying widgets arranged with layout managers. Vaadin Flow then auto-generates the needed HTML+CSS+JavaScript to render the user interface remotely in the web browser while maintaining the state of your app on the server. Pure Java on server, no Java on client.
We have developed a Windows based Desktop application using Java Swing and build a exe of it using javapackager available in Java 8.
Now we are trying to automate the testing of it using Karate-Robot but Robot could not detect the fields on the GUI of Application. To further dig we have installed AccessibilityInsights suggested by Karate Community to figure out how to access elements on the GUI but it seems that our application is not getting detcetd in it. See attached screenshot.
Can someone help us on how to fix the application?
Will Java Accessibility Bridge help here? As per documentation https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/11/access/java-accessibility-guide.pdf, Application needs to implement Java Accessibility APIs when it needs to be available to Windows Assistive technologies.
Edit 1: As per https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/misc/access.html, "Because support for the Accessibility API is built into the Swing components, your Swing program will probably work just fine with assistive technologies, even if you do nothing special."
Ashish--
There have been multiple iterations of Windows-based assistive technologies over the years. The current iteration has existed since 2005 and is called UI Automation. This is the technology that is required for OS-provided tools like Magnifier and Narrator. It's also the technology that is required by Accessibility Insights for Windows. From your description, it might also be the technology that is required by Karate-Robot.
Java Accessibility Bridge uses an older iteration of assistive technology that is no longer recognized by OS-provided accessibility tools. It is recognized by some third-party accessibility tools (JAWS and NVDA, for example), but it is not recognized by OS-provided accessibility tools. To the best of my knowledge, Oracle has no plans to support UI Automation in the future. When their docs say that your apps will "work just fine", they're referring to users who rely on these third-party tools.
Accessibility Insights for Windows has made a conscious decision to support only UI Automation, since supporting 2 platforms would make things much more difficult. We chose to go with UI Automation because it is the only technology that is:
Actively supported by the operating system, with new features being regularly added and documented.
Supported by native Windows controls and most actively supported language frameworks.
The technology that we would expect new assistive technology tools to implement first.
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news on this.
DaveTryon (Accessibility Insights team)
I have developed a JavaFX app and I am going to distribute it as a Native Package to avoid headaches with users having a Java version lower than 7 (and thus, without JavaFX) or having no Java at all.
However, I also want to be able to deliver updates of my application. One solution is for the app to call home (its already communicating with the backend via XMLRPC), fetch a JAR and self-update. I can see potential problems with the actual update process though (would need to build a separate updater program, but how do you update the updater?).
I know about and would love to use Java Web Start. However, I have no idea if this will work with the Native Package thing. If the user already has Java installed, it will disregard my bundled JRE. If he has no Java... well, he can't use Java Web Start, right?
How can I solve this problem in an elegant way that will not have a detrimental effect on user experience? (and preferably won't be very long to implement)
note: I am using e(fx)clipse as build tool.
If he has no Java... well, he can't use Java Web Start, right?
True, but as mentioned in the JWS tag Wiki:
Java Rich Internet Applications Deployment Advice. Describes the deployJava.js
script designed to ensure a suitable minimum version of Java is installed before
providing a link to a
JWS app.
or launching an
applet.
Note that JWS also offers fine grained versioning as detailed in Java Web Start - Runtime Versioning.
Saying that, JWS can allow you to support earlier systems by adding the JavaFX 2 API selectively to those earlier systems. That is achieved using a version based resources section in the launch file.
So, JWS combined with deployJava.js would actually be 'the alternative' to the Native Package that page discusses.
I know that I can convert a Swing application to an Applet or a Java Web Start application. Is it possible to do the same with an application that's not Swing, say Qt using Java?
What I'm really looking for is a UI framework using Java that's as cross-platform as possible and also has a rich set of UI functionality. Being able to run the application as either a desktop or a Web application would be preferable.
What I'm really looking for is a UI framework using Java that's as cross-platform as possible and also has a rich set of UI functionality.
Assuming a desktop deployment, the three major frameworks are Swing, SWT and JavaFX.
Try the JavaFX Ensemble sample to see if that technology would suit your needs.
I know that I can convert a Swing application to an Applet or a Java Web Start application. Is it possible to do the same with an application that's not Swing, say Qt using Java?
QT is native code that doesn't run on the JVM - it is not a Java UI framework. Applet and Web Start programs require a Java class as their entry point. Any use of QT is such a scenario would require a Java <=> QT adaption layer and I am not aware of the existence of any such thing - you would probably need to build it yourself based on a technology like JNI.
Being able to run the application as either a desktop or a Web application would be preferable.
See the JavaFX deployment guide for various JavaFX deployment options and the Swing deployment guide for various Swing deployment options.
The definition of Web application is pretty nebulous. Here are some distinct scenarios:
You are restricted to just html5 => produce the html on a server to
distribute to the client.
You want html launching a Java
application => then something like WebStart in combination with the
Java Deployment Toolkit can be used.
You will be rendering a
JavaFX application inside a browser window => then use a browser embedded app.
There are many pitfalls for embedding java applications is web pages (just use google to discover some of them).
What I have done in one of my projects is develop the application as a web application and then generate a installable to distribute my application. This has great benefits:
It can be installed in a server and publicly available. Just as a normal web application.
It can also be installed in a desktop.
I used "Jetty" to embed the web server in my application and be able to run the application as a stand alone in desktop environment. The slogan of Jetty is "Don't deploy your application in Jetty, deploy Jetty in your application."
Also I used "IzPak" to package my application in a executable JAR for installation. If you want to make that JAR easy to install for people who might not have installed Java you can use launch4j which is a tool that wraps the JAR into an EXE. So it can validate first if the computer has already Java and if not inform the user that he needs to have Java installed to proceed. The only drawback of this is that if you wrap your application in an EXE you are limiting the portability to other platforms, but that's your decision according to the requirements.
Java Web Start apps can contain native libraries, so yes you should be able to convert an app using Qt (assuming the bindings exist) to a JWS app.
Applets on the other hand are tricky to make work with anything other than AWT/Swing, since you have no control over the creation of the top-level window.
If you want to use Qt you would first have to make Qt bindings for Java as they are not currently functional.
If you want to use Qt bindings from a Java Applet you will need to make your bindings an installable extension which would be a potential security risk unless you know what you are doing. You would also have to get the user to install your extension. Also IcedTea-web which are the FOSS plugin shipping with Linux will not load an extension. So if you want your extension to work on Linux you will have to fork IcedTea-web and make your own plugin.
So the short answer: Stick to Swing.
We want to migrate UI rich application from delphi to java or Web Application.
Reason is that we want application to be portable on all Operating Systems.
Current Components and Modules of Application in Delphi :
In Delphi we are utilizing TWebBrowser component to display HTML content
We are playing mp3 that is extracted from FileStream on clicks in HTML.
All resources for HTML are retrieved from Embeded Database Firebird/Ms Access.
To sync some content we are doing HTTP post to PHP scripts to centralize the data on webserver.
Deployment:
- Application has to be deployed on CD and installed on Desktop computer on Mac OS, Linux, Windows.
I need your help how to approach this migration. Is better to go with Java UI or Web App that will be deployed with WAMP/XAMP and appropriate distributions on Linux and Mac's.
EDIT:
I have some specific requirements for audio functionality. Audio files are separate files distributed on CD or USB. Audio files are one solid file compiled from mp3's inside. Application will have to have ability to extract the mp3 based on offset and size of mp3 stored in index file and to play in real time... How this affects idea of Web App using this approach.
Why don't you give FreePascal a try? It uses the same language as Delphi, and can compile to a native application on Windows / Linux / Mac. Since you already have your app in Delphi, converting it shouldn't be too difficult.
Have a look at the freepascal website
If I had to deploy on a CD, I'd probably go with Adobe's AIR. It is really fulfilling the promise Java made 10 years ago in a reasonable way. It isn't perfect, but it does a pretty good job.
I've heard this internet thing is really taking off.
For all of the reasons that applications have gone online over the past 10 years, there really isn't much discussion to be had.
While Java is reliable, distributing and rolling out subsequent updates to those applications is heavy and time consuming.
I did Delphi development for over 9 years. I resisted the idea of distributing real applications over the web for quite some time. Today, I can't believe anyone would choose to continue in this way.
One nice thing, you can probably reuse some of your Delphi logic on the backend if you get creative. (I would only recommend this for the short term)
But, this answer doesn't really address your issue as you are saying that you must distribute it via CD.
The Java 6u10 release allows for distributing Java WebStart applications on media instead of from a Webserver, which might be exactly what you are looking for. You can also put the JRE installer for Windows on the CD too, if needed.
What exactly are your requirements crossplatformwise?
If most of the application is HTML-based, why not make it a full web application, using Ajax and Java?
I recommend NetBeans, and ICEFaces, which is a Java Server Faces implementation with Ajax support, including concurrent updates - if one user edits a record, all other users will see an update in their web page.
It is possible to package the whole application in a single jar file, including the servlet container (Jetty for example), so a simple java -jar myapp.jar will run the application.
NetBeans allows visual editing of the ICEFaces web pages, and even visual editing of the page relationships. The tutorials on NetBeans.org are excellent, and with tools like Maven, Hudson and others, code quality and development process can reach a very high level.
If you have some Delphi application using Datasnap : you can also re use your server made in Delphi with Datasnap in Delphi Prism and make Silverlight application.
And the same is true for DataAbstract