Deploying Java Applets - Accessing the Default Browser
(Page 4 of 5 )
Java desktop applications sometimes need to present the user with online web pages for news, documentation, and registration forms. Although Java currently supports the limited ability to display HTML using classjavax.swing.JEditorPane, web browsers such as Netscape or Internet Explorer have additional advanced capabilities such as supporting HTML scripting languages and various multimedia formats. This section describes how to enable your Java desktop applications to launch the default web browser external to your application on the client platform in a platform-independent manner.
Method showDocument()
Java has always supported the ability of an applet to control its browser container via theshowDocument()method of interfacejava.applet.AppletContext. Unfortunately, Java desktop applications, as opposed to applets, do not have access to instances ofAppletContext. The JNLP API provides an interface—javax.jnlp.BasicService—which provides a similar method for JNLP desktop applications.
Isolating Optional Packages
Assuming a JNLP API implementation is available on the client platform, theshowDocument()method of classBasicServiceautomatically launches the default web browser on the client platform using platform-independent code. However, you will often want to write your game code in such a way that it can still run in an environment where the JNLP libraries are not installed. Ideally, your compiled game code should be able to run as a browser applet, an executable JAR, and as a JNLP Java Web Start application without modification. You can do this by including code that loads the JNLP class libraries, if available on the client machine, or gracefully continue on if not.
private static JnlpServices createJnlpServices ( )
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
{
try
{
return ( JnlpServices )
Class.forName ( JnlpServices.IMPL_CLASS_NAME ).newInstance ( );
}
catch ( Exception ex )
{
return null;
}
catch ( NoClassDefFoundError er )
{
return null;
}
}
The trick to this is to use dynamic class loading. You could also use reflection to accomplish this feat, but I find that as a general rule it is better to use custom interfaces and dynamic class loading. You start by first separating out the code that statically links to the optional package libraryjavax.jnlp. You then attempt to dynamically load that code using
Class.forName().newInstance(). If JNLP is not installed, the attempt generates aNoClassDefFoundErrorwhich you can then catch and handle gracefully. The preceding code from classJnlpLibin packagecom.croftsoft.core.jnlpdoes just that.
package com.croftsoft.core.jnlp;
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
public interface JnlpServices
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
{
public static final String IMPL_CLASS_NAME
= "com.croftsoft.core.jnlp.JnlpServicesImpl";
[...]
public boolean showDocument ( URL url )
throws UnsupportedOperationException;
In this case,JnlpServicesis an interface in packagecom.croftsoft.core.jnlpwith no static links to packagejavax.jnlp.IMPL_CLASS_NAMEis the name of a class,JnlpServicesImpl. This class provides a concrete implementation of theJnlpServicesinterface that does require static links to the optional package. A custom interface reference allows your code to handle optional package libraries without static linking and without using reflection.
CAUTION In teaching a course on Java game programming, I noted that forgetting to explicitly name dynamically linked classes in the Ant build file was one of the most common causes of grief for my students. This can be difficult to debug as it will not generate a compile-time error and might not generate a runtime error. The calling code might silently ignore a runtime error and carry on under the assumption thatJnlpServicesImplcould not load dynamically because the game is not running within a JNLP client container. The truth of the matter, however, might be thatJnlpServiceImplcould not be loaded because it was not compiled and included in the JAR file.
public static final JnlpServices JNLP_SERVICES
= createJnlpServices ( );
[...]
public static boolean showDocument ( URL url )
throws UnsupportedOperationException
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
{
check ( );
return JNLP_SERVICES.showDocument ( url );
}
[...]
private static void check ( )
throws UnsupportedOperationException
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
{
if ( JNLP_SERVICES == null )
{
throw new UnsupportedOperationException ( );
}
}
Static methodshowDocument()in classJnlpLib uses the implementation class if it can be dynamically loaded. If not, it throws an
UnsupportedOperation-Exceptionthat the calling game code can catch and handle gracefully.
package com.croftsoft.core.jnlp;
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import javax.jnlp.*;
[...]
public final class JnlpServicesImpl
implements JnlpServices
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
{
[...]
public boolean showDocument ( URL url )
throws UnsupportedOperationException
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
{
try
{
BasicService basicService = ( BasicService )
ServiceManager.lookup ( "javax.jnlp.BasicService" );
return basicService.showDocument ( url );
}
catch ( UnavailableServiceException ex )
{
throw ( UnsupportedOperationException )
new UnsupportedOperationException ( ).initCause ( ex );
}
}
When using theshowDocument()method inAppletContext, an instance ofAppletContextis retrieved using the applet instance’s owngetAppletContext()method. An instance of interfaceBasicService, however, is retrieved using the static methodlookup()of classjavax.jnlp.ServiceManager.
public static Object lookup ( String name )
throws UnavailableServiceException;
If an implementation ofBasicServiceis not available from the JNLP client, theServiceManagerthrows anUnavailableServiceException.JnlpServicesImplconverts this exception from the optional packagejavax.jnlpto an
Unsupported-OperationExceptionfrom the core packagejava.langif it is thrown. Note that theThrowable.initCause()method is used to attach the original exception to the new exception for examination by the calling code.
Next: Dynamic Linking Using Reflection >>
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 This article is excerpted from chapter two of Advanced Java Game Programming, written by David Wallace Croft (Apress; ISBN: 1590591232). Check it out today at your favorite bookstore. Buy this book now.
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