[Java-gnome-developer] GNOME Web Start

[Benjamin P. J. <bp...@te...>]

Hi all,

I'm new to this list and didn't bother to read the whole history, so
please forgive me if the idea which I want to present ain't new at
all. :-)

I have never ever written an application using GTK/GNOME, but my skills
as a Java programmer are quite good. I played around with the java-gnome
binding itself and was surprised how easy it is to create a nice GUI
using Glade and then actually loading it using the excellent java-gnome
bindings... the documentation on how to do all the tricky things sucks /
is just not completed. My English isn't very good as it ain't my native
tongue but I could to do some German translations if needed.

But now to my actual idea:
I'm using Java Web Start to deploy most of my Java/Swing applications.
It's a clean and easy way to keep all users of a software product
up-to-date.  See http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/
It's a technology that 'just works' (tm).
I haven't tried yet,... but it should be possible without too many
problems to deploy applications that use the java-gnome bindings via
Java Web Start, too. Java Web Start uses the Java Net Launching Protocol
(JNLP) which is a well documented standard provided by SUN Microsystems.
You browse the web, download a jnlp file (XML format) and hand it over
to your Web Start application which does the rest for you. It downloads
all the required JAR files and (if needed) native libraries, it handles
permission control and security (all JAR files need to be digitally
signed).

Why not write a clone of SUN's original Java Web Start which acts as an
JNLP interpreter and handles start menu / desktop integration, caching
and updates of already installed Web Start applications and libraries...
JNLP spec.: http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/download-spec.html

Maybe the idea is dumb, but it could become some kind of killer
application. I'm speaking of an application to deploy platform
independent Java applications that integrate nicely into your GNOME
desktop. (It might be extended at some further point to be able to load
and deploy apps that are e.g. written in python).

Test page for my 1st attempt of a java-gnome application that can be
started via SUN's Java Web Start:
http://phreakzone.com/~bpjung/projects/gws/gws.jnlp (ain't working, yet)

The goal should be to create an application that runs using SableVM or
any other open source Java Runtime. Maybe it's overkill to use JNLP and
the first goal should be to create a data format that is slightly easier
to handle... comments anybody?


Have fun...
  Benjamin