Member Avatar for emman

While running the older version of jdk1.3.0 my bdk1.1 worked fine. Recently i installed the latest version of the j2sdk1.4 and the problem surfaced. Whenever i run the run.bat file, lot of exceptions are thrown at the command prompt. And some of the inbuilt beans won't be shown.
As for me there is no problem in deploying my applications. My question is: Is this problem a bug in the software? incompatiblity between jdk and bdk? is there any new version of bdk?
Thank you all in advance.

  • 2 Contributors
  • 2 Replies
  • 213 Views
  • 2 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by emman

Dani AI

Generated

Short summary and practical fixes (adds to ’s pointer)

The Beans Development Kit (BDK) and its BeanBox are reference-era tools from the late 1990s and were built against early JDKs (JDK 1.1 / Java 1.1-era). That age is why a modern J2SE 1.4 runtime can produce many load-time exceptions when you run the BDK’s run.bat — the tool simply wasn’t maintained against later platform changes. (cs.cmu.edu)

Immediate, low-risk fixes you can apply now

  • Run the BeanBox with the older Java runtime instead of the system default. From a Windows command prompt you can temporarily put an older JDK first on PATH and then start the BeanBox:

    set PATH=C:\path\to\j2sdk1.3\bin;%PATH%
cd \path\to\bdk\beanbox
run.bat

    Or edit run.bat to call an explicit java executable (example shown in contemporary writeups). This avoids changing the machine-wide JDK and keeps your 1.4 installation for other work. (infoworld.com)

How to diagnose and (sometimes) repair failing built-in beans

  • Run run.bat from a console and copy the first stack trace lines; they usually name the offending class or JAR.

  • Check the BDK’s jars directory for the named JAR, list its contents (jar tf Buttons.jar) and extract/inspect the classes. If the failure points at a BeanInfo or demo class you can try recompiling that source against the older JDK or remove the demo JAR from the jars folder so BeanBox skips it. Example workflow:

    jar tf Buttons.jar
jar xf Buttons.jar
javac -classpath ..\classes -d . src\sunw\demo\buttons\ExplicitButtonBeanInfo.java
jar cf Buttons.jar ...

    Note: recompiling may expose more source fixes; success is not guaranteed, but this is the usual path when a single demo bean breaks the loader.

Longer-term options

  • Give up on the vintage BDK and use a maintained visual/bean-aware tool (NetBeans’ Swing GUI builder supports JavaBeans/customizers) or community projects such as JBeanStudio as modern alternatives. These tools are actively maintained and integrate with newer JDKs. (netbeans.info)

Cautions: back up the BDK directory before editing jars or run.bat; capture full exception output (first few lines are the most telling). If deployment of your applications already works, the simplest approach is to run the BDK only with an older JDK installation and move on to a modern IDE for future visual work.

Recommended Answers

All 2 Replies

Member Avatar for jwenting

The BDK is dead and burried. Its last version dates from 1997 or 1998.
http://java.sun.com/products/javabeans/software/bdk_download.html notes clearly that it's not working on 1.4 or later.
It also lists Windows 95, NT, and Solaris 2.6 as the only valid operating systems to use it on, telling something of its age.
It goes on to state the system is out of development and no longer supported.

There's a new project that's I think supposed to replace it:

But you don't need a tool like that, may the Source Be With You!

Member Avatar for emman

thank you jwenting for your guidence.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.