Intranet With OBJECT/EMBED Tag


This section includes the following topics:

Introduction

The intranet is a more controlled environment than the internet, and you can decide whether you want to deploy your applets via the APPLET, OBJECT, or EMBED tags. This chapter deals with deployment using the OBJECT or EMBED tags.

Java Plug-in can be deployed in an intranet environment so that users can download and install it without leaving the firewall. Deployment details for Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator are described below.

Note

You need to understand the Java Plug-in tagging structure to understand the discussion below. The tagging structure is explained in Using OBJECT, EMBED and APPLET Tags in Java Plug-in.)

Deploying Java Plug-in with Internet Explorer (IE)

To deploy Java Plug-in in intranet environments with IE, you need to download and store the Java Plug-in binary file on a web server. Then you need to modify the codebase attribute inside the <OBJECT> tag in the HTML file to point to the binary. For example, if you want to use the Java Plug-in binary file in http://my_company.com/plugin/, then you should specify the codebase attribute as

"http://my_company.com/plugin/jre-1_4-win.exe#Version=1,4,0,0"

(For Internet deployment the above might use a .cab file rather than .exe. The .cab file points to an .exe and provides a download progress bar.)

Note the version number in the above URL. For Java Plug-in 1.4, the version number is 1,4,0,0. This version number changes for each release, and you must change the version number inside the <OBJECT> tag if you want to specify the newest release of Java Plug-in.

The file jre-1_4-win.exe#Version=1,4,0,0 is the same binary that can be download directly from the Java Software web site. It is digitally signed with a VeriSign digital signature signed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. If you are using the Java Plug-in HTML Converter, you can simply change the conversion template file to specify the latest Plug-in version (the CabFileLocation variable) before the conversion. For information about modifying the conversion template, consult the README file in the Java Plug-in HTML Converter. Note that CabFileLocation can be the location of the .cab file or the .exe.

Once you have implemented these changes, when a machine that does not have Java Plug-in installed browses an HTML page with IE, IE will look into your predefined location (http://my_company.com/plugin in the example) and download Java Plug-in. Notice that there is no need to download Java Plug-in over the firewall if the web server is inside the intranet.

Note: Recommendations

The following is recommeded for long-term reliability:

  • For the codebase attribute in the OBJECT tag, it is recommended that you use the .exe version, rather than the .cab version, on java.sun.com. That .cab version on java.sun.com may point to an updated version that you do not want to use for your deployment.
  • It is also recommend that you create your own download site for the versions you need so that you do not rely on java.sun.com. Downloads on java.sun.com frequently change.

Deploying Java Plug-in with Navigator

For Netscape 6 you must use the APPLET tag.

To deploy Java Plug-in in intranet environments with Navigator 4, you need to download and store the Java Plug-in binary file on one of your web servers. Then you need to set up a Java Plug-in Download page and modify the pluginspage attribute in the EMBED tag to refer to this page. For example, if you have set up the Java Plug-in Download page at "http://my_company.com/plugin/" and the page is called plugin-install.html, you can specify the pluginspage as "http://my_company.com/plugin/plugin-install.html". The Download page should have options to download different versions of Java Plug-in, such as for Windows and Solaris.

If you are using the Java Plug-in HTML Converter, you can simply change the conversion template file to specify your download page (the NSFileLocation variable) before the conversion. For information about modifying the conversion template, see Details About Templates in the chapter called More About HTML Converter or consult the Help file in the HTML Converter itself (Help>Help).

Once you have implemented these changes, when a machine that does not have Java Plug-in installed browses an HTML page with Navigator, users will see a missing-plugin icon on the HTML page. When the user clicks on this picture, Navigator directs the user to your predefined Java Plug-in Download Page (http://my_company.com/plugin/plugin-install.html in this example). Notice that there is no need to download Java Plug-in over the firewall if the web server is inside the intranet.

Deploying Java Plug-in with Unix/Linux with Navigator

There are two ways that Java Plug-in might be installed in the Intranet environment with Unix or Linux:

In either case, for Netscape 4 the environmental variable NPX_PLUGIN_PATH must be set to point to the Java Plug-in. When Java Plug-in is installed on the local machine, then the user needs to set this variable to point to the Java Plug-in in the JRE on the local machine. For a shared installation, the system administrator needs to determine the shared location of the Java Plug-in in the shared JRE on the NSF drive and set the user profile for every machine to point to this via NPX_PLUGIN_PATH.