[RFC] plugin: use an AppContext to support applets running with different look and feels

[Deepak Bhole]

* Omair Majid <omajid at redhat.com> [2010-10-14 14:17]:
> On 10/07/2010 05:33 PM, Omair Majid wrote:
> >Hi,
> >
> >The attached patch is an (updated) attempt to fix PR565 [1]. The patch
> >does two things:
> >
> >1. It creates a ThreadGroup for the applet earlier in the initialization
> >phase.
> >
> >The applet's intialization code (currently) creates 3 threads (most of
> >this code is in NetxPanel, AppletPanel and Launcher). The first thread
> >is what calls applet.init(), applet.start() etc. It creates the second
> >thread to load the applet (so loading can be interrupted). This second
> >thread is what calls Launcher.launch() which ends up creating the third
> >thread to actually load the applet. This third thread is created in a
> >new ThreadGroup and has the JNLPClassLoader set as the
> >ContextClassLoader. The patch makes sure that all three threads are
> >created in the same ThreadGroup and the appropriate context class loader
> >is set for all of them. This part of the patch is attached to the bug
> >report. With this patch, all the threads of an applet can load the
> >classes for the custom look and feel.
> >
> >2. Allows different applets to use different look and feels.
> >
> >The patch creates a new AppContext for each applet ThreadGroup. This
> >means that each applet instance can set its own look and feel and not
> >affect any other applet (which might lead to visual inconsistency as
> >well as errors in loading custom look and feels). The AppContext class
> >(part of sun.awt package) contains a map from ThreadGroup to AppContext
> >that Swing and AWT can use to make sure they have the AppContext, which
> >they can then use to index ThreadGroup-specific things like EventQueues
> >and LookAndFeels. ApplicationInstance stores the AppContext for each
> >applet instance, so the correct type of AppContext can be returned by
> >JNLPSecuritymanager when AppContext.getAppContext() calls it to find the
> >current AppContext.
> >
> >I would greatly appreciate it if people can try this patch out. While I
> >have tested with a large number of jnlp files and many applets, it could
> >certainly use more testing.
> >
> >Any and all feedback is welcome!
> >
> >Thanks,
> >Omair
> >
> >[1] http://icedtea.classpath.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=565
> 
> Anyone? Any comments?
> 

Looks okay to me. The changes look extensive though, and need a bit of
testing. Ok for commit to HEAD. We'll hold off on backporting this one
for now.

Cheers,
Deepak

> Thanks,
> Omair