If you want no server side setup for webstart all your clients must have a java version greater than java6 update 10 (the naming convention gets too complicated now, mr. sun! …)

For ubuntu 8.04 see my last blog entry how to install this java version.

All you need to do in our maven set-up of this post is to add the following 2 lines to our pom.xml:
…
</sign>
<pack200>true</pack200>
<gzip>true</gzip>
<verbose>true</verbose>
…

Then do:
mvn clean install webstart:jnlp
again and add one line

<j2se version=”1.6+” initial-heap-size=”32m” max-heap-size=”128m”/>
<property name=”jnlp.packEnabled” value=”true”/>

to our jnlp template.

And as it is described here you could even use the versioning feature
<property name=”jnlp.versionEnabled” value=”true”/>
with a specific naming convention, too:
foo__V1.0.jar

But all only if the clients have java > java6 update 10 …

Start TimeFinder here to try a servlet-free-packed200 application out. With jars it was approx 9 MB. Now all pack.gz files in sum are 3.3 MB! And the download time was approx 160 seconds, where now I downloaded und unpacked it within 40 seconds with the same internet connection. You can try it for yourself via switching the java version e.g. from java6_10 to 6_7 or to java5 (in ubuntu this is relative easy with ‘sudo update-alternatives –config javaws’) But before you have to remove the application from cache: start javaws -viewer, search TimeFinder’s shamrock and remove it. Otherwise TimeFinder would start nearly instantaneous.

If you plan to deploy your maven application via webstart you are a lucky man, because this is easy if you know how to do it 😉

I tried it without success, but then Geoffrey with his networktools came to my rescue. Now TimeFinder is jnlp-enabled. The following steps were necessary:

1. create a new folder ‘jnlp’ under src/ (where main and test live)
2. put the file template.vm there with:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <jnlp spec="1.0+" codebase="http://timefinder.sourceforge.net/jnlp2" href="$outputFile">
    <information>
       <title>TimeFinder</title>
       <vendor>TimeFinder Team</vendor>
       <homepage href="http://timefinder.sourceforge.net/"/>
       <description kind="one-line">TimeFinder</description>
       <description kind="short">TimeFinder - the automatic timetabling generator for universities and schools</description>
       <description kind="tooltip">TimeFinder - the automatic timetabling generator for universities and schools</description>
       <icon href="http://timefinder.sourceforge.net/jnlp/shamrockwhite.jpg" kind="default"/>
       <shortcut online="false"><desktop/><menu submenu="TimeFiner"/></shortcut>
    </information>
    <security>
    <all-permissions/>
    </security>
    <resources>
       <j2se version="1.6+" initial-heap-size="32m" max-heap-size="128m" />
       <property name="jnlp.versionEnabled" value="true"/>
       $dependencies
    </resources>
    <application-desc main-class="$mainClass">
    </application-desc>
   </jnlp>

3. create a keystore:
   keytool -genkey -alias timefinder -keystore timefinder.jks
   be sure that you use keytool from the same JDK-PATH as you use for maven!
4. add the following to your pom.xml:

   <build>
     <plugins>
       <plugin>
          <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
          <artifactId>webstart-maven-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>1.0-alpha-1</version>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
    <pluginManagement>
       <plugins>
          <plugin>
             <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
             <artifactId>webstart-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <!-- do not bind to install phase
             <executions>
              <execution>
                <goals>
                  <goal>report</goal>
                </goals>
              </execution>
             </executions>
             -->
           <configuration>
              <jnlp>
               <mainClass>de.timefinder.core.Startup</mainClass>
              </jnlp>
             <sign>
              <keystore>/home/peterk/Dokumente/quell/timefinder/trunk/timefinder-core/timefinder.jks</keystore>
              <keypass>unsecpwd</keypass>
              <storepass>unsecpwd</storepass>
              <storetype>jks</storetype>
              <alias>timefinder</alias>
              <verify>true</verify>
            </sign>
           <verbose>true</verbose>
         </configuration>
        </plugin>
      </plugins>
     </pluginManagement>
    </build>
   </project>

5. Now you should be able to execute:
   mvn install webstart:jnlp
   which will create a zip file with all the signed jars
6. See my next post for versioning and pack200!