Try as I might, I can't get a JNLP file to run locally (via a double-click). It seems to be an issue of locating a jar file, even when I specify it relative to the jnlp file. I get the following error:
The field <jar>href has an invalid value: helloworld.jar
This happens even when the JNLP file is in the same folder as helloworld.jar. I've done searches and this is a consistent problem especially for people who want to package an application on a CD and use JNLP. The only Sun-provided "solution" is the ability to specify the codebase via command line, but that doesn't really help much. I don't understand why they don't assume or allow the codebase to be "." or "file://." - I tried these sorts of things in the codebase parameter of the jnlp tag (inside the file) and nothing worked.
It is extremely convenient for me to use a JNLP file because I don't need to worry about platform detection, native libraries, or even the main JOGL jar files; I simply include this line and everything is done for me:
<extension name="JOGL" href="http://download.java.net/media/jogl/builds/archive/jsr-231-2.0-beta10/webstart/jogl-all-awt.jnlp" />
I'm hoping to find something that can do the same sort of thing. If not, I can manually (or with Ant) grab the JOGL jar files, it's not a big deal; just one of those things that JNLP does for me and I'm really going to miss.
What is the best alternative to JNLP files, for me to use locally (i.e. double-click to run)? Is there anything so elegant or do I just need to write a shell script for Linux, a batch file for Windows, and have Ant detect and download the appropriate JOGL jars?
Answer
I've used a .jnlp file like this to launch Java Web Start software locally
specify the code base like so:
<jnlp spec="1.0+" codebase="file://localhost/X:/path/to/jnlp/" href="software.jnlp">list resources with relative paths:
<resources> <jar href="lib/software.jar" main="true" /> <jar href="lib/softwareLibrary.jar" main="true" /> ... </resources>and finally tell Web Start where it can find the software entry point inside the jar marked with
main="true":<application-desc main-class="com.example.Main" />
The only thing you need to change when deploying remotely is the codebase parameter.