[Openjnlp-devel] OpenJNLP command-line launching

[Kevin H. <ke...@na...>]

I have implemented the launching properties thing inside the 
openjnlp-lib.jar as was previously discussed and added 
Gestalt.platformKey() to get a short string for each platform for 
creating properties like "launch.<key>.cmd=/usr/bin/java" where <key> is 
a key string returned by Gestalt.platformKey().

There needs to be a consensus on command-line operation, since we all 
have ideas on what we would like. I'll throw my world-view out to get 
the ball rolling on a discussion.

org.nanode.app.OpenJNLP     is the entry point for the 
platform-integrated application
org.nanode.jnlp.JNLPParser  is the entry point for JNLP 
parsing/caching/launching

When external launching occurs, org.nanode.launcher.Launcher will invoke 
(by default) org.nanode.jnlp.JNLPParser with appropriate switches.

I feel really good about the OpenJNLP-lib behavior, but I'm not quite 
sure about the application part. Until OpenJNLP gets to a point of 
handling JNLP files for web browsers I don't know if all the issues are 
clear.

With no further ado, here's my first at some actual documented 
behavior...


Proposed OpenJNLP-lib Behavior
------------------------------
org.nanode.jnlp.JNLPParser can be considered as the "OpenJNLP engine", 
allowing full control of the launching process. It will not do anything 
special other than perform whatever mechanical tasks specified. 
Arguments passed on command line after options will be treated as URLs 
to launch. If multiple URLs are specified and external launching is 
specified, each URL will be launched in a separate JVM. If internal 
launching is specified, all URLs will be launched in the current JVM.

Default launching behavior changes from launching internally to 
launching externally. This means org.nanode.launcher.Launcher be updated 
to reflect this. All "-extXXX" args have platform-specific defaults 
defined in "/lib/launcher.properties" inside the openjnlp.jar.

My idea of the current options are:

-version       show version of openjnlp-lib
-internal      launch within current JVM (external JVM launch is default 
behavior)

-extclasspath  <classpath to use when externally launching>
-extcmd        <command to invoke when externally launching>
-extmain       <main class name to invoke when externally launching>


Proposed OpenJNLP Application Behavior
--------------------------------------
org.nanode.app.OpenJNLP invokes the OpenJNLP application, which is 
defined as the user-friendly front-end to the OpenJNLP engine. It has 
two important jobs: to provide a good user experience (GUI or CLI) and 
to interface with the operating system.

The behavior of operating systems dictates that arguments on the command 
line must be treated as local files. If OpenJNLP is invoked with no 
arguments, it will assume the GUI should be invoked (interactive mode). 
If arguments are specified, it should run in "non-interactive" mode. The 
exact behavior of this mode is not quite clear in my mind at this stage. 
All launching is done as external launching.

An option can be set indicating the arguments should be treated as URLs 
instead. Another option will suppress the GUI.

My idea of options:

-version      show version of openjnlp
-gui          force GUI to come up regardless of arguments
-nogui        never bring up gui regardless of arguments
-urls         treat arguments as URLs instead of files