CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaexejava-web-startjnlpexe4j
secretwpn
secretwpn

Reputation: 71

How to bundle WebStart JNLP with JRE

I have a large Java application that for historical reasons was developed as an applet (runs inside web browser).

Now we are interested in deploying it as a standalone application bundled with JRE, and exe4j looks quite promising.

However there is one tricky part: the current applet has its codebase stored on the local web server, so any time user runs the applet on a remote PC - it downloads the jar from the server and therefore always runs the latest version.
In case of update - our engineers just update the jar on the server and restart the applet on remote PCs.

This is something we need to keep.

If I change the applet to standalone Java application - I know the way to run it using JNLP and Web Start to keep this "auto-update" functionality

But is it possible to use this JNLP as a starting point for exe4j - this I can't figure out.

So the end result should be: exe file (maybe with satellite directories like jre, etc) that has bundled jre and my application, that checks itself against the code on the server and updates itself if needed before running.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 853

Answers (1)

Andrew Thompson
Andrew Thompson

Reputation: 168825

But is it possible to use this JNLP as a starting point for exe4j - this I can't figure out.

Yes and no. JWS provides an 'extension installer' element that will fire the first time an app. is installed, and when it is uninstalled by the Java Control Panel. But JWS will expect that a 'run once' installer does not need the type of auto-update it is good at, so won't update it when it's changed.

On the other hand, for JWS to work at all, a JRE must be present, so I don't see the advantage of using exe4j or bundling a JRE.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions