Java Web Start, introduced in Java 2, is a framework developed by Sun Microsystems that allows running the applications for the Java Platform over the Web by clicking a link on a website, and on a desktop icon thereafter……….
Important Web Start features include:
1) The ability to automatically download and install a JRE in the case where the user does not have Java installed, and for programmers to specify which JRE version is needed to run a given program.
2) The user does not have to remain connected to the Internet to execute the downloaded programs, because they execute from a locally-maintained cache.
3) Finally, automatic updates of the software from the Web are available when the user is connected to the Internet, thus easing the burden of deployment.
This technology offers a nice compromise between the ease of distribution provided by Java applets and the power of Java applications.
Version 1.0 of Web Start was introduced by Sun in March 2001. Since J2SE version 1.4 it has been included by default with the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and does not have to be installed separately.
JNLP is free; developers are not required to pay a license fee in order to use it in programs.
Java Web Start is similar to Click Once in the .NET framework.
From user’s point of view, this technology is amazing, coz it frees the user from downloading, installing and keeping track of latest version of the application. For him everything is happening automatically...on just a single click at a link on their web browser. But for a developer, it is quite a headache. Because web start maintains the cache of the application at some place, it renames all the resource files and keeps them all at different- different locations. And all this information is maintained by web start only. So while developing the application, a lot of care needs to be taken.
To conclude, Java Web Start is a very useful technology, if implemented carefully.
References:
http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/developers.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Web_Start
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1049931.html?tag=rbxccnbtr1
1 comment:
This article has helped to introduce me to new topic that is, 'Java Web Start'. Very good explanation about the features. I look forward to more such articles on JAVA on this blog. Keep up the good work!
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