Java Network Launching Protocol (JNLP)
Programmers often speak of the Java Network Launching Protocol (JNLP) interchangeably with the term "Web Start". The JNLP protocol, defined with an XML schema, specifies how to launch Java Web Start applications. JNLP consists of a set of rules defining how exactly to implement the launching mechanism. JNLP files include information such as the location of the jar package file and the name of the main class for the application, in addition to any other parameters for the program. A properly configured browser passes JNLP files to a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) which in turn downloads the application onto the user's machine and starts executing it. The development of JNLP took place under the Java Community Process as JSR 56. It includes the original 1.0 release, the subsequent 1.5 maintenance release, and as of 2006, the pending 6.0 maintenance release. JNLP comes free of charge; developers need not pay a license fee in order to use it in programs.
Important Web Start features include the ability to automatically download and install a JRE in the case where the user does not have Java installed, and for programmers to specify which JRE version a given program needs in order to execute. The user does not have to remain connected to the Internet to execute the downloaded programs, because they execute from a locally maintained cache. Updates of the software download from the Web become available when the user has a connection to the Internet, thus easing the burden of deployment.
Any computer user can use JNLP by simply installing a JNLP client (most commonly Java Web Start). The installation can occur automatically such that the end user sees the client launcher downloading and installing the Java application when first executed.
JNLP works in a similar fashion to how HTTP/HTML works for the web. For rendering a HTML webpage, after the user clicks on a weblink, the browser submits a URL to a webserver, which replies with an HTML file. The browser then requests the resources referred to by this file (images, css), and finally renders the page once it has received enough information. Page rendering usually starts before all resources have downloaded; some resources not critical to the layout of the page (such as images), can follow on afterwards — or on request if the "Load Images Automatically" browser-setting remains unset.
JNLP mirrors this process; in the same way that a Web browser renders a webpage, a JNLP client "renders" a Java app. After the user clicks on a weblink, the browser submits a URL to a webserver, which replies with a JNLP file (instead of a HTML file) for the application. The JNLP client parses this file, requests the resources specified (jar files), waits for the retrieval of all required resources, and then launches the application. The JNLP file can list resources as "lazy", which informs the JNLP client that the application does not need those resources to start, but can retrieve them later on when/if the application requests them.
Read more about this topic: Java Web Start
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