Bugzilla Bug 35024

java-config should create a file association for JNLP files, Java Web Start
Launchers. (javaws is used to start JNLP files.)

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

This is still necessary for 1.4 and earlier, but according to
http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/bugParade/bugs/4811103.html, Java 1.5
(internal build 32 and later) does this automatically.

Could you give me a couple links regarding background for this and why it
should b e integrated into java-config?

I'm not sure what you mean by background, but java-config should do this
because the file association needs to be changed based on the current JDK/JRE.
With a file association set for JNLP files, Linux users can click on Java Web
Start links and have the application start up immediately. Without the binding,
users have to copy and paste the URL into the command line and type "javaws
<url>".

Okay, I'll have to look into this later, I need to do some research on
how/where to create the bindings before I can decide wether or not it's
feasible for java-config to do this.

I must say, that I would find it more interesting, that java-config would add
the path to javaws (ie /opt/sun-jdk-1.4.2.03/jre/javaws) to ENV when a JDK/JRE
is chosen.

Jen, this already happens :P

The issue is I guess in having java-config deal with webstart. Or have a javaws-config.

I think a better solution for this is just to add the webstart crap to the sun
ebuilds under gnome/kde flags. Maybe I'm wrong :o

It could be done in the ebuilds, and the file association could execute
whichever javaws was in the PATH.

I like the solution of having ebuilds do it, I think java-config already does
too much.

Ok so anything happening here (beeing 8 months since this bug entry was open) ?
I have some office gentoo users which were very happy about Gentoo and Linux
until they found out JNLP links does not work from the browser. Any sugestions
?

This should be handled by the ebuilds rather than java-config (similar to how
all the media applications add the proper association through the ebuilds). 
java-config would handle the association to the proper javaws (if there are
multiple j{dk,re}s installed).

As in comment #10, I can't get java web start working in my browser (firefox).
It seems that my friend's computer, running SUSE does work. I'm not sure if
he's using an RPM or just the stuff provided by SUN directly, but it would be
really great if Java web start worked out of the box in gentoo.

The Java WebStart problem is far more extensive than just file mimetypes.  We
are working on resolving this issue.  (There is an open bug for that specific
issue...please check it out and comment if it does not work).

Associating JNLP with javaws will be much easier once we migrate to the new
java-config and eclasses.

The new java-config installs wrapper scripts to
/usr/bin/{java,javac,javaws,etc...}, and these scripts know where to find the
appropriate tool based on the current VM.

Once we've migrated to the new system, I think we need to add the following to
/etc/mailcap:

application/x-java-jnlp-file; /usr/bin/javaws %s; test=test -n "$DISPLAY"

And the following to /etc/mime.types:
application/x-java-jnlp-file          jnlp

A little bump to see if this is still being planned.

Yes, we will probably do it via .desktop file installed by java-config that
will call the javaws wrapper.

Bump to see if this can be resolved.

(In reply to comment #18)
> Bump to see if this can be resolved.
> 

Support is now in java-config trunk. To test you can use:
https://overlays.gentoo.org/svn/proj/java/java-experimental/dev-java/java-config

Supposed? :)

$ grep TryExec projects/java-config-2/trunk/data/javaws.desktop
TryExec=gimp-2.4

java-config-2.1.5 has the file associations