RFC: Netx - disable desktop shortcuts

[Omair Majid]

Hi,

I would like to disable the desktop launcher code in Netx as it has some 
  issues. Thanks to Deepak who originally brought up these problems.
The two major ones are:

1. First of all, the desktop launcher Netx creates dont work well with 
the alternatives system. They all invoke $CURRENT_JDK_HOME/bin/javaws 
instead of /usr/bin/javaws. However changing to /usr/bin/javaws brings 
up other problems. /usr/bin/javaws is likely to be some other JDK which 
may or may not understand Netx's options that it uses in the launcher. 
This could lead to desktop launchers that dont work. /usr/bin/javaws 
overwite our shortcut with it's own which would then call, for example, 
/usr/java/latest/bin/javaws instead of /usr/bin/javaws. Also note that 
Sun's javaws creates a launcher that points to their cache. Netx wont be 
able to use that cache.

Part of this issue can be fixed by using the exact same options as Sun's 
javaws to maintain compatibility. However I dont see a simple way to 
make a proprietary JRE's javaws invoke /usr/bin/javaws. Or to share the 
cache between multiple JDKs.

2. These shortcuts dont work offline, even if the application allows it. 
  The current launchers just point Netx to the original JNLP file, which 
wont work if the machine is offline (even if everything has been cached 
by Netx).

The correct fix is to ensure that Netx supports offline mode, uses the 
cache and JNLP update mechanism correctly and then make the launcher 
point to the cache. This might take some time to implement correctly.

Because of these major issues, I would like to disable desktop shortcut 
support in Netx.

ChangeLog:
2009-07-30  Omair Majid  <omajid at redhat.com>

   * rt/net/sourceforge/jnlp/runtime/ApplicationInstance.java
   (initialize): Disable creating desktop shortcuts.

Any comments?

Cheers,
Omair
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: netx-disable-desktop-shortcuts.patch
Type: text/x-patch
Size: 1315 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/distro-pkg-dev/attachments/20090730/cae97c4b/netx-disable-desktop-shortcuts.patch