JNLP File Syntax

This chapter covers the following topics:

Introduction
Example
JNLP Elements

Introduction

The format used in this release is that specified in the Java Network Launching Protocol and API (JNLP) Specification v1.0.1. This document describes the most commonly used elements of a JNLP file. For a complete description of the format, refer to the specification.

The JNLP file is an XML document. The following shows a complete example of a JNLP file.

Example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<jnlp
spec="1.0+"
codebase="http://my_company.com/jaws/apps"
href="swingset2.jnlp">
<information>
    <title>SwingSet2 Demo Application</title>
    <vendor>Sun Microsystems, Inc.</vendor>
    <homepage href="docs/help.html"/>
    <description>SwingSet2 Demo Application</description>
    <description kind="short">A demo of the capabilities of the Swing Graphical User Interface.</description>
    <icon href="images/swingset2.jpg"/>
    <icon kind="splash" href="images/splash.gif"/>
    <offline-allowed/>
</information>
<security>
      <all-permissions/>
</security>
<resources>
    <j2se version="1.4.2"/>
    <jar href="lib/SwingSet2.jar"/>
</resources>
<application-desc main-class="SwingSet2"/>
</jnlp>

The example shows the basic outline of the document. The root element is jnlp, which has four subelements: information, security, resources, and application-desc. In addition, Java Web Start also supports launching Applets by using the applet-desc element. The elements are described in more detail below.

JNLP Elements

`jnlp` Element

spec attribute: This attribute must be 1.0 or higher to work with this release. The default value is "1.0+". Thus, it can typically be omited.

codebase attribute: All relative URLs specified in href attributes in the JNLP file are using this URL as a base.

href attribute: This is a URL pointing to the location of the JNLP file itself. Java Web Start requires this attribute to be set in order for the application to be included in the Application Manager.

`information` Element

title element: The name of the application.

vendor element: The name of the vendor of the application.

homepage element: Contains a single attribute, href, which is a URL locating the home page for the Application. It is used by the Application Manager to point the user to a Web page where more information about the application can be found.

description element: A short statement about the application. Description elements are optional. The kind attribute defines how the description should be used. It can have one of the following values:

one-line: If a reference to the application is going to appear on one row in a list or a table, this description will be used.

short: If a reference to the application is going to be displayed in a situation where there is room for a paragraph, this description is used.

tooltip: If a reference to the application is going to appear in a tooltip, this description is used.

Only one description element of each kind can be specified. A description element without a kind is used as a default value. Thus, if Java Web Start needs a description of kind short, and it is not specified in the JNLP file, then the text from the description without an attribute is used.

All descriptions contain plain text. No formatting, such as with HTML tags, is supported.

icon element: Contains an HTTP URL to an image file in either GIF or JPEG format. The icons are used to represents the application

during launch when Java Web Start presents the application to the user;

in the Application Manager;

in desktop shortcuts.

A 64x64 icon is shown during download; in the Application Manager and in desktop shortcuts a 32x32 icon is used. Java Web Start automatically resizes an icon to the appropriate size.

Optional width and height attributes can be used to indicate the size of the images.

The optional kind="splash" attribute may be used in an icon element to indicate that the image is to be used as a "splash" screen during the launch of an application. If the JNLP file does not contain an icon element with a kind="splash" attribute, but does contain another icon tag, Java Web Start will display a splash screen consisting of the image specified by the icon element on the left and the application's title and vendor on the right.

If the JNLP file does not contain any icon images, the splash image will consist of the application's title and vendor, as taken from the JNLP file.

A splash image will be surrounded by a border defined by Java Web Start.

The first time an application is launched following the addition or modification of the icon element in the JNLP file, the old splash image will still be displayed. The new splash image will appear on the second and subsequent launches of the application.

offline-allowed element: The optional offline-allowed element indicates if the application can be launched offline.

Applications not marked offline in the JNLP file will not be launched by the Application Manager. By default Application Manager only launches an application if the client system is online.

The offline-allowed element also controls how Java Web Start checks for an update to an application. If the element is not specified—i.e., the application is required to be online to run—Java Web Start will always check for an updated version before launching the application. And if an update is found, the new application will be downloaded and launched. Thus, it is guaranteed that the user always runs the latest version of the application. The application, however, must be run online.

If offline-allowed is specified, Java Web Start will also check to see if an update is available. However, if the application is already downloaded the check will timeout after a few seconds, in which case the cached application will be launched instead. Given a reasonable fast server connection, the lastest version of the application will usually be run, but it is not guaranteed. The application, however, can be run offline.

`security` Element

Each application is, by default, run in a restricted execution environment, similar to the Applet sandbox. The security element can be used to request unrestricted access.

If the all-permissions element is specified, the application will have full access to the client machine and local network. If an application requests full access, then all JAR files must be signed. The user will be prompted to accept the certificate the first time the application is launched.

`resources` Element

The resources element is used to specify all the resources, such as Java class files, native libraries, and system properties, that are part of the application. A resource definition can be restricted to a specific operating system, architecture, or locale using the os, arch, and locale attributes.

The resources element has six different possible subelements: jar, nativelib, j2se, property, package, and extension. The package and extension elements are not discussed in this developer's guide. See the Java Network Launching Protocol and API (JNLP) Specification v1.0.1 for details.

A jar element specifies a JAR file that is part of the application's classpath. For example:

<jar href="myjar.jar"/>

The jar file will be loaded into the JVM using a ClassLoader object. The jar file will typically contain Java classes that contain the code for the particular application, but can also contain other resources, such as icons and configuration files, that are available through the getResource mechanism.

A nativelib element specifies a JAR file that contains native libraries. For example:

    <nativelib href="lib/windows/corelib.jar"/>

The JNLP client must ensure that each file entry in the root directory of the JAR file (i.e., /) can be loaded into the running process using the System.loadLibrary method. Each entry must contain a platform-dependent shared library with the correct naming convention, e.g., *.dll on Windows or lib*.so on Solaris/Linux. The application is responsible for doing the actual call to System.loadLibrary.

Native libraries would typically be included in a resources element that is geared toward a particular operating system and architecture. For example:

    <resources os="SunOS" arch="sparc">
        <nativelib href="lib/solaris/corelibs.jar"/>
    </resource>

By default, jar and nativelib resources will be downloaded eagerly, i.e., they are downloaded and available locally to the JVM running the application before the application is launched. The jar and nativelib elements also allow a resource to be specified as lazy. This means the resource does not have to be downloaded onto the client system before the application is launched.

The download attribute is used to control whether a resource is downloaded eagerly or lazily. For example:

    <jar href="sound.jar" download="lazy"/>
    <nativelib href="native-sound.jar" download="eager"/>

The j2se element specifies what Java 2 SE Runtime Environment (JRE) versions an application is supported on, as well as standard parameters to the Java Virtual Machine. If several JREs can are specified, this indicates a prioritized list of the supported JREs, with the most preferred version first. For example:

       <j2se version="1.3" initial-heap-size="64m"/>
       <j2se version="1.4+"/>

The version attribute refers, by default, to a platform (specification) version of the Java 2 platform. Currently defined platform version are 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4. (A platform version may optionally contain a micro version number; e.g., 1.4.2.)

Exact product versions (implementation versions) may also be specified—e.g., 1.3.1_01 or 1.4.2-beta by Sun Microsystems, Inc.—by including the href attribute. E.g.,

<j2se version="1.3.1_01" href="http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se"/

or

<j2se version="1.4.2-beta" href="http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se"/>

If a platform version is specified (i.e., no href attribute is provided), Java Web Start will not consider an installed non-FCS (i.e., milestone) JRE as a match. E.g., a request of the form

<j2se version="1.4+">

would not consider an installed 1.4.1-ea or 1.4.2-beta JRE as a match for the request. Starting with 1.3.0, a JRE from Sun Microsystems, Inc., is by convention a non-FCS (milestone) JRE if there is a dash (-) in the version string.

The property element defines a system property that will be available through the System.getProperty and System.getProperties methods. It has two required attributes: name and value. For example:

<property name="key" value="overwritten"/>

`application-desc` Element

The application element indicates that the JNLP file is launching an application (as opposed to an applet). The application element has an optional attribute, main-class, which can be used to specify the name of the application's main class, i.e., the class that contains the public static void main(String argv[]) method where execution must begin.

The main-class attribute can be omitted if the first JAR file specified in the JNLP file contains a manifest file containing the main class.

Arguments can be specified to the application by including one or more nested argument elements. For example:

<application-desc main-class="Main">
<argument>arg1</argument>
<argument>arg2</argument>
</application-desc>

`applet-desc` Element

Java Web Start has support for launching Java applets. This support provides easy migration of existing code to Java Web Start.

An applet is launched using the applet-desc element instead of the application-desc element. For example:

<applet-desc
      documentBase="http://..."
      name="TimePilot"
      main-class="TimePilot.TimePilotApp"
      width="527"
      height="428">
    <param name="key1" value="value1"/>
    <param name="key2" value="value2"/>
</applet-desc>

The JAR files that make up the applet are described using the resources element as for applications. The documentBase must be provided explicitly since a JNLP file is not embedded in an HTML page. The rest of the attributes correspond to the respective HTML applet tag elements.

The main-class attribute is used instead of the code attribute. The main-class attribute is assigned the name of the Applet class (without the .class extension). This attribute can be omitted if the Applet class can be found from the Main-Class manifest entry in the main JAR file.

Note: Applets must be packaged in JAR files in order to work with Java Web Start.

JNLP File Syntax

Introduction

Example

JNLP Elements

jnlp Element

information Element

security Element

resources Element