Pre-update N seamless JRE install

[Casper Bang]

I know update N is suppose to address this, but I need to provide a
better mechanism for installing Java than just forwarding to
http://java.sun.com/getjava/ which evidently confuses people a great
deal.

I'm already detecting whether Java is installed but the issue of how
to redirect to Sun and have them redirect back again for actual client
application launch has me puzzled. Before trying to embed polling in a
frame or similar, how do you guys deal with this? Is there really no
HTTP request hint you could forward to Sun such as to have them
redirect back when done installing Java?

/Casper

[Casper Bang]

Ok well, I seem to have avoided running into the XSS security issues I
was afraid of initially. If Java isn't detected, an install page is
shown within an iframe. This install page consists of a frameset, with
a hidden top frame which is checking if Java is installed ever 5
second. The lower frame (full size) is the redirect to Sun from where
Java is installed. At the end of the install cycle, the upper hidden
frame will detect that Java is installed and redirect the visible
frame to the JNLP file. It appears to work reasonable seamless, but if
you have an alternative/better approach I would love to hear it.

/Casper

On Jan 10, 12:02 am, Casper Bang <c...@brunata.dk> wrote:
> I know update N is suppose to address this, but I need to provide a

> better mechanism for installing Java than just forwarding tohttp://java.sun.com/getjava/which evidently confuses people a great

[Todd Costella]

We've opted to package our application in a MSI which includes the
proper JRE for our swing app.

I'm a big fan of webstart and would acknowledge that there are some
improvements in the implementation but for us, having a JRE installed as
a prerequisite to run our application is not ok. Our clients tend to be
large shops with all sorts of desktop policies and invariably a
deployment staff that is handling many hundreds or thousands of
desktops. They want something simple that they can drop into to their
management software and not have to worry about it.

Many of our users don't even know (and quite frankly they shouldn't have
to know/care) that our implementation technology is java. They don't see
javaw in the task manager (in windows), they don't see coffee cup logos
in a webpage or in the system tray, and we don't ask them if they want
to install Star Office. Much has been written on this, some on this
list. I don't need to rehash to whole branding thing here.

Not exactly what you were looking for Casper I'm sure, but my take on
getting the JRE (in our case a very specific rev of the jre) to our
users.

[Casper Bang]

The approach you've taken is from a very pragmatic point of view which
I've been tempted to do as well, given that 99% of our customers run
Windows. Thanks for your thoughts Todd.

/Casper

> tohttp://java.sun.com/getjava/whichevidently confuses people a great

[Todd Costella]

There are a few good MSI builders out there that grok java. We've landed
on http://advancedinstaller.com/ from Caphyon.

It does everything we need, has a command line interface so it
integrates well into our build environment plus the project files are
XML so they can be tweaked by our build process. We set things like
version numbers and product codes automatically.

The product also can generate OS/X installers too.

I would highly recommend them.