Reliable deployment idea: JNLP Launcher exe/dmg

[Mark Fortner]

Jeff,
Unfortunately, Oracle is moving away from having it's own appstore (sort of
one step short of what you're asking for) and looking to rely on the OS
vendors app stores.

It would be nice if when you installed Java you got a Java app store app in
your dock.  You could then easily find the apps you wanted and wouldn't
have to mess with having to repackage things for different platforms.

Cheers,

Mark




On Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 3:36 PM, Jeff Martin <jeff at reportmill.com> wrote:

> So here's an idea for reliable deployment. What if we build a Netbeans
> JNLP launcher project that you customize with just a link to a JNLP and a
> splash image, and it builds your GreatApp.exe and GreatApp.dmg. The
> launcher app would simply fetch the JNLP, download the jars (if newer than
> cache), load them, and invoke MainClass.main().
>
> Then on your website you can say,
>
>         If you have Java, try the Web Start link [ here ] or
>         Download [ GreatApp.exe ] or [ GreatApp.dmg ]
>
> So the benefit over plain web start is that your GreatApp would have a
> consistent, self-contained execution environment, in the event that the
> target system doesn't have an installed JRE that is the right version or
> uncorrupted. You also don't get scary warning panels or signing issues. And
> you wouldn't be susceptible to surprise JRE update problems. But you would
> still get the benefit of simple upgrades that WebStart gives you. And you
> wouldn't have to constantly generate a new .exe/.dmg (maybe once or twice a
> year if you decide a new JRE update would benefit your app).
>
> Such a Netbeans project would probably only be a dozen pages of code.
> Here's an even better idea - Oracle sets up a server that will take any
> JNLP link and dynamically generates a .exe/.dmg for us. :-)
>
> jeff