The indication that a link works is that you get a popup
that says "Java Loading", or something like that and then a bunch of
files get downloaded and eventually the application actually comes up.
For this to work with a browser, the browser has to recognize java
webstart links, which have a jnlp suffix. Macs tend to have
webstart pre-installed on their browsers. Windows seems to as
well. Linux does not and I don't know about Solaris. If its not
working what you basically have to do is set up an association in the
browser between whats called a mime type, which is
"application/x-java-jnlp-file" in this case, and the webstart
application, which you need to find on your computer(more on this
below).
These are the steps I had to go through to get webstart installed on my
Mozilla browser on Linux, which does not come with webstart
pre-installed.
First you need to see if you have webstart already installed on your
computer. If you have java on your computer then usually webstart comes
with java so you should have it. So if you have java you first need to
find out where it is installed. In linux you type "which java" at the
command line. For me this comes back with
/usr/lib/java/bin/java
You then need to make sure you are using java 1.5, phenote requires
1.4. Do a "java-version" at the command line. If you have anything less
than 1.5, you need to install java 1.5, or if you have 1.5 installed
somewhere (but its not the default) you need to find it and grab its
javaws. If you try to webstart phenote with a java less than 1.5
nothing will happen and it won't even indicate that its the wrong java,
you just have to know.
So what I found is in java 1.5 javaws is in both the bin and jre
directory. So cd to
/usr/lib/java and do a "ls jre" and "ls bin" (on windows "dir jre"
& "dir bin") and look for a file called "javaws", which is the
webstart application. The full path plus javaws is what you will need
below. So for me its "/usr/lib/java/jre/javaws"
If webstart is not on your computer (or network) you can download it
from(make sure its from java 1.5):
http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/download.jsp
Now that we've found the webstart application we are ready to associate
it with a mime type in the browser. Here is how it is done in Mozilla
on linux, I hope other browsers are somewhat similar.
Hit the "Edit" menu, and its "Preferences" sub menu to get the
Preferences dialog. Expand the "Navigator" category, and under
that click on "Helper Application", which is where mime types get
associated with applications. Click the "New Type" button, which brings
up a New Type dialog box. In the "MIME Type" field enter
"application/x-java-jnlp-file". Under "Description" you can just
put "Java Webstart". Under "Extension" put "jnlp". Click on "Open it
with:" and in the associated field either entor or browse for the
location of webstart on your computer. This is what you were digging
for above. For my computer I enter "/usr/lib/java/jre/javaws", the
location of my webstart app. then deselect "Always ask me before
handling files of this type", as who wants to keep being asked, and hit
"OK" and hit "OK" as well in the Helper Applications dialog.
You now need to restart your browser for it to pick up the new mime
type association for webstart and hopefully the above link should now
work.
One thing thats also handy if there are problems bringing up webstart
is to bring up the browsers java console (this may not be supported by
all browsers). This should give some feedback on things happening
behind the scenes of the webstart application, so its good for trouble
shooting. In mozilla this can be brought up with menu
Tools->Web Development->Java Console.