A few years ago I wrote a web-service that would automatically create JNLP files, making it much easier to deploy java applications. They’re just XML files, but they have some very odd syntactical quirks and can be a pain in the ass to get working correctly. This post has an early alpha version that works as a downloadable application you can run from your desktop.
I kept hoping someone would get around to making a simple, easy to use, desktop equivalent. But it didn’t seem to happen, so today I was browsing through the code and decided I’d convert it to a desktop version, and give it away. So, here it is: a program that lets you specify all the config for your java web start application and then creates a JNLP for you automatically.
You need ALL the attached jars, download them into the same directory. Then run jnlpcreator-bin.jar
NB: this is a work-in-progress – the Save and Test buttons don’t do anything yet, but you can get a lot of the functionality just by using the Preview button and copy/pasting out of the window that it pops up.
NB2: for some reason, teh popup window doesn’t popup on OS X. I have no idea why.
NB3: there are still some old references to the original hardcoded paths in the codebase and href at top of the JNLP; you’lll need to manually correct those for now, but next version I’ll replace them with some clever uto-generated stuff.
4 replies on “Java Web Start / JNLP maker”
I found this blog post. I would like to try your app. However the links you provided are not valid anymore. Can you repost the links?
Regards
Fernando
Ugh, sorry – it got deleted when the blog server died. I’ll see if I can find a copy on my laptop and re-upload it.
There; should be working now.
Hi, I also stumbled upon the JNLP creator and checked it out.
Reason why I looked for a creator was because I can’t seem to auto-create a shorcut when my JNLP initializes (menu bar and desktop icon).
I was hoping if your creator could support this feature.
Thanks!