I'm looking for a way to launch my java application when using a custom URI.
Something in the lines of
movie://superman/
This should start my application and display information about the movie "Superman".
if friends of my have my application installed as well, i can send them that URI so they can click on it.
I used to do this back in the days in VB6 but i lost my code and forgot how to do it.
OS: windows
Any help would be appreciated.
The actual mechanism to implement this is operating-system dependent (and thus not accessible from pure Java).
The general idea is to register your application as the protocol handler for the protocol in question.
On Windows you do that by writing the appropriate registry keys
..should start my application and display information about the movie "Superman".
If you can distribute your app. from a web site, you might take a slightly different approach:
Launch the app. using Java Web Start.
In the JWS launch file (JNLP format), add a custom file extension, e.g. xuri.
Send the user an clickthis.xuri file containing the URI of interest.
When the JWS app. registered to that file type is invoked, it will be passed -open clickthis.xuri as arguments to the main(String[]).
Proceed from there..
This approach should work on any OS with 'modern' Java installed. JWS was available since 1.2, & became co-bundled with the JRE around 1.4.2.
Related
I'm using IntelliJ IDEA, I have coded a frame which I want to put into an HTML file so I can run it in my browser, how do I do this now that I cannot use JApplet? I have found this documentation: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/deployment/webstart/deploying.html and this http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/deployment/webstart/deploying.html but I am new to programming and find this difficult to follow. I don't know for instance how I would go about putting my class files and the image that I used in a separate directory nor do I know how I go about signing my application so that it will run in a browser.
I want to put into an HTML file so I can run it in my browser,
You can use the Desktop class. This class allows you to access default applications from your desktop.
Read the section from the Swing tutorial o How to Integrate With the Desktop class for more information and working examples.
See Java Plugin support deprecated and Moving to a Plugin-Free Web.
Note that is one of my 'copy/paste comments' that does not explicitly mention JFrame based apps., however the links are still relevant in that Oracle & browser makers would not be phasing out support for applets if they wanted programmers to keep trying to shove rich client apps (e.g. Swing GUIs) into thin client web pages.
OTOH you can offer a JFrame (or a JApplet) to be launched from a link in a web page to end up free floating on the desktop of the user by using Java Web Start.
Even then, it is not a simple matter for the programmer or the end user. The programmer needs to ensure the app is digitally signed using a code signing certificate issued by a CA (usually they are expensive). The end user used to just be able to click the link, 'OK' the prompts produced by the Java virtual machine, and see the app appear on-screen. But now most browsers will download the launch file to the local file system rather than directly hand it to the JVM to be launched. So the user faces an extra step in explicitly finding the downloaded launch file and double clicking it.
This is all due to security concerns related to bugs in the plug-ins that run things in web pages. So if you were to find a way around all these hoops, please let us know. It is a security bug that requires urgent fixing.
In my web application I need to launch a Windows application installed on client machine when a button in the page is clicked.
I know there are security policies in browsers that avoid this by default, but I also know application that do this. An example could be online meeting, web conferencing applications like WebEx or GoToMeeting.
How they do that?
I'm working with Java, so I'm wondering if Java Applets are an option to achieve this.
Is there some other well known way to solve this issue?
NOTE application execution MUST be allowed by user
The best way to deploy a Java desktop application is using Java Web Start.
And forget applets. Soon Chrome won't be able to load them (along with a number of other plug-ins) at all.
you can achieve it with applet. but user must allow to run it. it is hard to run some extern application from button or link because this is potentially danger behaviour. Remember the applet can not get access to the files on user computer and other servers (unless it is digitally signed)
I haven't done any program that utilizes Java Web Start. However, since I need to develop a program that I can automatically update remotely, I am thinking of delivering it via JNLP.
My question is, will it run given that the program uses FileOutputStream?
Before answering, I must indicate here that I cannot use an Open Dialog because I am outputting to a printer on a shared location (example: //computer/epsonlx300). Also, not very familiar with sandbox permissions, etc.
Thanks.
Unless you electronically sign your jar, it will not be able to write anywhere outside the JWS sandbox (unless the user gives permission through an open dialog). This is mostly for security reasons, but makes developing a Java Web Start app fairly frustrating.
Unfortunately since you need to write to a location outside of the sandbox, you can't use JWS unless you sign it.
For future reference, there is a JNLP service called PersistenceService that will allow you to write to the sandbox. Think of it like writing cookies, except that it's for Java Web Start apps only.
I was reading about java web start from wiki. Can someone please tell me
What is it used for?
A practical application of it; to make its use clearer.
Do other languages like C++ / C# have
anything similar?
Thanks,
Roger
Java Web Start is kind of like a successor to applets - it allows Java programs to be run from your browser (though unlike applets, they don't run within the browser). For a practical example, see the TopCoder Arena.
http://www.topcoder.com/contest/arena/ContestAppletProd.jnlp
Here, Java Network Launching Protocol (JNLP) is the protocol that defines how a Web Start application should be run (analogous to HTML telling a browser how a page should be rendered).
See the Oracle tutorials:
Lesson: Web Start
Deploying a Java Web Start Application
Java Network Launch Protocol
Java Web Start software provides the
power to launch full-featured
applications with a single click.
Users can download and launch
applications, such as a complete
spreadsheet program or an Internet
chat client, without going through
lengthy installation procedures.
With Java Web Start software, users
can launch a Java application by
clicking a link in a web page. The
link points to a Java Network Launch
Protocol (JNLP) file, which instructs
Java Web Start software to download,
cache, and run the application.
I'm quoting the Java Tutorial lesson on WebStart
For those of you who work with .Net something like Java Webstart is ClickOnce technology.
Java Web Start is used to write sandboxed desktop applications similar to Java Applets. Like applets they can be launched from a web browser, but they run in their own window - not inside the browser.
It runs just like a normal application, but started from clicking a web page instead of having to download and run an installer. An advantage is that it's very easy to get people who are afraid of all the security warnings to try your application. Another advantage is that you don't need to keep the browser open while you run your application. You can even install a shortcut to your application onto the user's desktop so they don't need to touch the browser at all once they have run it the first time.
The .NET equivalent is Click Once.
What is it used for?
To roll out and keep updated an application to clients. Clients need "only" a Java Runtime installed. This may be more interesting to read.
Java webstart is used to deploy/install Java applications over the network.
The alternative is to send an application (MyApp.jar) to the users who will run that directly. But if it is out-of-date, they could have collisions when the application talks to the server (for example, or other such badness).
It also allows you to package all of the required libraries. This is a HUGE benefit.
http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/desktop/javawebstart/index.jsp
As mentioned above, it's a technology to allow you to 'push' an always up to date Java app to users. It's not often used on a consumer level, but has some adoption in a corporate atmosphere.
It's best used in somewhat controlled environments, and is especially useful to push a specific version of client software to control a server.
Do other languages like C++ / C# have anything similar?
Yes. Microsoft provides something called ClickOnce that provides a web-based installer.
Today i am looking for the same example about the Java web start...
I thing this link will work for you,i have used as a beginner.
Click Here
As mention With Java Web Start software, users can launch a Java application by clicking a link in a web page. The link points to a Java Network Launch Protocol (JNLP) file, which instructs Java Web Start software to download, cache, and run the application.
We had a project, a plugin for Protégé, which is an ontology editor.
Installing the plugin isn't that hard, but to give the user a quick impression how the plugin worked, we supplied a Java Web Start application on our site. The page is still active, the plugin may have some rough edges, since it hasn't been updated for a while ... http://dac.icore.at/one/solutions.
I'm currently not aware of similar products for C/++/#.
Java web start is the 0-install solution in the java world.
An application built to use Java web start (JWS) will be available as a link in a web site. This site will have the .jnlp extension.
When a user clicks this link (and clicks the "execute" button of his browser) , the javaws.exe runtime will be launched. This executable will download the application and dependencies (libraries, images, and so on) and launch the application using the provided main-class of the .jnlp file).
An extensive reference of JNLP content can be found at http://lopica.sourceforge.net/ref.html
Examples of Java web start applications can be found at Swing sightings.
Notice that, depending upon the chosen configuration, these applciations can also be automatically installed in start menu.
Is it feasible to launch an application via a browser / URL? What are the options for doing this?
I know the way to do it with IE and Windows (which usually doesn't work). Ideally, I would like this to be browser independent.
Our application is RCP, so in theory Java Web Start could work, we would just have to do some significant changes to how we deliver our application to users, which I would like to avoid. Our web server code is currently all Java if that makes a difference.
I pretty much gave up on this until I clicked a url on Apple's site, which in turn launched iTunes.
How does Apple do that?
iTunes registers itself as a protocol handler for custom itms:// and itmss:// protocols. When you hit a URL with that protocol - after a step of indirection on Apple's web servers, in this case - iTunes launches to handle it, much like your browser launches to handle http:// URLs or your email program launches to handle mailto: URLs.
This isn't "cross-platform", per se, but it does work on every platform out there, as URL handlers exist and do the same thing everywhere.
It has the disadvantage of only working if the application is already installed, which is why you may want to have a splash page that instructs people to install the application if necessary.
Silverlight 3 and Adobe Air will let you launch applications outside the browser.
If this is OS independent, then you can't rely on any specific program being available. What kind of program would you want to launch anyway?