Member Avatar for gedas

Hey,

i was wondering whether anyone ever came accross developing something that would allow to have a software installed on the vm.

What i mean by that is that i would want to install ie (internet explorer)/or any other windows application whithin my java app. so it could be opened on any operating system such as mac os x.
i am quite certain this is possible as i have seen similar projects carried out. howerver it would be great if someone could guide me on how to accomplishe this or where to start.
any suggestions will be apreciated

thanks.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by NormR1
Member Avatar for NormR1

Are you asking how to bundle OS specific programs as part of a java program? Everything would be in one huge jar file. I'm not sure how that could work. If the program requires installation on a computer how would that be done? Would the java program copy the installation file out of its jar file and then execute it to do the installation?

Edited by NormR1
Member Avatar for gedas

i was thinking that the intalation file would be stored within the jar and once you load it on new enviroment you install windows applications than, however this does not necessery has to be this way.
The most important thing is making windows applications portable regardless whether they are already preinstalled in the jar file or installed after the jar file has executed

Member Avatar for NormR1

making windows applications portable

How does this relate to java programming?

Member Avatar for gedas

well i believe that windows application would have to sit on javas virtual machine in order to be executed on any operating system

Member Avatar for JamesCherrill

Are you asking to run a windows executable on Max or Linux? That's not a Java problem - you need a windows emulator or native windows API implementation, so on Mac you need Parallels (or equivalent), on Linux its Wine (or equivalent).
Is this a very specific application, or do you need to run an appropriate version of a generic app such as web browser, email app etc? In that case you can use the Desktop API (from Java 6 onwards) to call those apps, or to open a file in whatever app is associated with the file type in that system... see
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/J2SE/Desktop/javase6/desktop_api/

Member Avatar for gedas

thanks James,

i mainly need ie (6,7,8 versions), this is for testing purposes as ie always causes most of the problems. i do not want to install windows operating system on my mac in order to test few sites so i want to wright a java app that would embed an ie and open it on my mac. so before i start reading up on the link that you provided can you confirm whether thats possible..

thanks

Member Avatar for JamesCherrill

If you mean the Windows IE then that's v. difficult. If you mean "a web browser" then desktop API will open IE on Windows, Safari on Mac, Firefox if that's preferred, etc

Member Avatar for NormR1

Java would be a fantastic piece of software if it could simulate/emulate any operating system while running on any platform.

Edited by NormR1
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