It's my second time attending JavaOne and the first time to be a speaker (of the JDIC BOF session). I was more excited about this JavaOne, because of all sorts of cool stuff and most importantly, meeting with many friends and JDIC participants after a long time email communication.
JavaOne 2005 is a yearlong milestone of JDIC, since its inception at JavaOne 2004. This year, we hosted a BOF session and a booth. The BOF session was well attended, with nearly 100 audiences, despite 15 BOFs going on at the same time. It went on with a 30 minutes presentation (slides), followed by a 20 minutes engaged discussion.
In the pavilion area, a middle-sized visitors dropped by the JDIC booth. I spent most of my time in the booth answering questions, showing off demos, and it's quite rewarding to get new ideas. Though, I would very much like to spend more time on those sessions.: )
A couple of bugs were brought to us, most of them relating to the Browser component, including:
A list of new proposed features at the conference, with a few comments from my perspective:
org.jdesktop.jdic.filetypes) resolves this
problem in a cross-platform way. Though it's not as flexible as the Windows Registry API,
it's cross-platformed, and provides pretty much the functionality needed by
most applications.Some more general questions about the project were raised, including the platform support matrix, stability, JDK integration, etc, which were covered in the JDIC website. In short, JDIC got more visibility both in the community and among JDK teams, and we introduced it to many new users this year.
Right after JavaOne, some new features are being added to the project or under investigation:
Notepad bundled
with JDK, the opened/edited files are not added to the MRU list of
documents. This API provides such functionality in Java. It's to be included in the JDIC FileUtil
incubator project. See the discussion
thread for the API specification.Besides the features under working, we've got lots of feature requests on the plate, and more are coming everyday. Below are some suggested guidelines we accept or host new features in JDIC later on:
Many features are addressed by more and more incubator projects, each of them providing a set of relevant APIs. We filter those more desirable features to be hosted in JDIC from three perspectives: desktop/Java integration, cross-platform and availability in JDK. Those features on desktop/Java integration, having a cross-platform support and missing in JDK would have a higher priority, and a better chance to be hosted in JDIC.
On the other hand, Mustang won't be available until mid of next year. Despite lots of new features introduced in Mustang, there are many bugs around desktop/Java integration registered in the Bug Database, which fit into JDIC. If we work on such features, then would benefit the Java community more and have a better chance to be accepted as part of JDK someday.
Besides JDIC, there are many relevant work or requirements out in the community. Read Colm Smith's blog Java and Desktop/Platform Integration, which commented on a couple of desktop/Java integration projects. It covers an interesting Java Service Wrapper project to enable a Java application to run a system service.
Another blog Why I can't get excited about JDIC by Elliott Hughes gives a long list of desktop/Java integration features that are missing for Mac, most of which are also missing on Windows/Linux/Unix platforms.
With all the listed feature requests falling into the scope of JDIC, we want your input to prioritize them and work together. Please raise your ideas and vote for your favorite features to the JDIC project !
Coming to the end of this blog, I read ClientJava.com's interview with the developers behind Columba - Java Email Client, which "... proves that with the new direction Java is going so far, it can leave its bad reputation behind and be a good foundation for a modern desktop applications." That "new direction" means desktop integration. It's worth a read!
]]>Both the Tray Icon API (org.jdesktop.jdic.tray.*) and Desktop
component
(org.jdesktop.jdic.desktop.*) will be included in
Mustang. These two sets of APIs will be added under the java.awt package. Here are more details:
The main functionality of these features in J2SE will be similar to the one in JDIC, although the APIs in these features will be reviewed and revised to ensure they fit nicely with the rest of the J2SE APIs.
The feature inclusion shows the potential reward in contributing to the JDIC project: if you work on a useful desktop feature within JDIC, one day it may be included in every copy of J2SE!
Q: Will you remove those packages from JDIC after the inclusion in
Mustang?
A: We won't do that in the near future. Since there will still be a lot of people using
J2SE 1.4 or 1.5, we'll keep them within JDIC, but mention their availability in
Mustang and suggest a migration.
Q: If you keep them in JDIC, how will you maintain the code?
A: Afterwards, these features in JDIC will be in maintenance mode.
Q: Where should I report bugs after the Mustang inclusion, J2SE or
JDIC?
A: It depends on where you find the bug. Raise it to J2SE through the
"normal" bug database if it happens to J2SE, and to JDIC if you are
using JDIC releases. If a bug reported to JDIC also happens to J2SE, we'll
report it to J2SE as well.
Q: What other JDIC components will be included in later J2SE releases after Mustang?
A: As the next step, we are working closely with the J2SE team to incorporate
the JDIC
Browser component (package org.jdesktop.jdic.browser) into a future release of J2SE after Mustang.
There've been many interesting discussions and ideas in the community that worth noting. What follows is a briefing of what's new in 0.9 and the overall status of the project.
For a summary of the new features plus a complete list of bug fixes in 0.9 release, see the Release Notes. Below outlines the major APIs and features introduced in 0.9:
jdic.jdesktop.jdic.browser)
public java.lang.String getContent()public void setContent(java.lang.String htmlContent)
Provides the ability to set and get the HTML content.
public java.lang.String executeScript(java.lang.String javaScript)
Provides the ability of communicating between Java and JavaScript code. Examples:
WebBrowser webBrowser = new WebBrowser(new URL("http://java.net"));
......
// Set the background color
webBrowser.executeScript("document.bgColor='blue';");
// Print the loaded page
webBrowser.executeScript("window.print();");
jdic.jdesktop.jdic.tray)
public void displayMessage(java.lang.String caption, java.lang.String text,
int messageType)Displays a balloon message near the tray icon. The message will disappear after a timeout or if user clicks on it.
Unlike a pure Java project, JDIC involves much native code, as it extends J2SE to bridge the gaps between the J2SE platform and the native desktop. In 0.8.x releases, we provided platform-specific releases (Windows, Linux, and Solaris). As of 0.9, we provided an additional cross-platform release. The developers can deploy applications using JDIC with this single cross-platform release. This greatly benefits pure Java applications, though, it increases the application size slightly.
Up to now, Apple's Mac OS X support has been added to most of JDIC features, though some of them are not yet provided in the 0.9 release.
jdic.jdesktop.jdic.desktop)Initially, JDIC only had support for Windows, Linux and Solaris platforms. But for later features and APIs, we'll have the Mac OS X support in mind from the early design phase.
Because of the popularity of JDIC we're taking a look at integrating parts of it into the "Core", the J2SE platform. This will significantly ease deployment of JDIC apps since all native code required will then be part of J2SE. The JDIC team is proposing to include a couple of JDIC features into J2SE 6.0 (Mustang) or 7.0 (Dophin). JDIC APIs have an advantage of being open source. With the available working prototype, we can see how the community use them, and then revise them accordingly.
We are revising the API specifications per the feedback from the J2SE team and the community for the inclusion:
Your input will help to improve and finalize the API specs, before they are made available to all Java developers.
As an Open Source project, JDIC website is the place to get all the latest information and releases. But in the next major release (Release 3) of Sun's Java Desktop System (JDS) operation system, and Solaris 10, which includes JDS Release 3, JDIC will be installed by default. It will no longer be necessary to install the JDIC Solaris PKG or JDS RPM on those operating systems.
However, JDIC keeps moving forward, you can visit the project website to reinstall the latest releases.
JDIC continues to be a popular java.net access, which shows a significant adoption. It holds a set of Java packages and facilities to ease Java/desktop integration, but it's so much more than that. While we enjoy bringing you new releases, don't forget that JDIC is also a place to host incubator projects proposed and owned by developers. Want to bake your own Java/desktop integration API? Hosting it under the cover of JDIC lets your idea be more visible, make use of a common community, and more ...! You can find the incubator projects currently hosted in JDIC. Incubator projects after JDIC was initially launched are as follows:
org.jdesktop.jdic.dock):org.jdesktop.jdic.icon):org.jdesktop.jdic.systeminfo):All these projects fit in the scope of Java/desktop integration. They are owned by the project owners, and developed at their own speed, with the support of JDIC QA engineers to ensure quality.
Besides these things on the plate of JDIC, we've consistently got new proposals and feature requests. Check out this incomplete list of feature requests, none of which is part of J2SE. And there are much more missing. Every now and then, we want to write a slick rich client application in Java that tightly integrates with the underlying desktop, but find that the necessary APIs are missing or incomplete on various platforms, including Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac at least.
With that in mind, we are collecting requirement information, carefully addressing those most desirable features by engaging the community and aligning the work with 3rd party Open Source projects. We are looking for contributors, either expert individuals or from companies, to help define and build this community!
Will you be in San Francisco during JavaOne 2005? The JDIC team will hold a BoF entitled JDesktop Integration Components (JDIC): Desktop Integration for Java Desktop Applications at JavaOne 2005, a presentation followed by an open mike or break out session. This would be an opportunity for project owners, contributors, and observers to meet each other and share our successes, failures, and frustrations of the JDIC project.
The JDIC team is also applying for a POD in the booth area, to showcase the JDIC features, communicate with you face-to-face. If we make it, there'll be a notice to the project forum. Please drop by the booth and post your ideas or questions to us. The JDIC team looks forward to your input and meeting you at JavaOne 2005.
JDIC is far and away not the only resource for Java developers who need desktop integration, it's not yet complete either. But it's under active discussion and development. There are currently several developers submitting code to the core, and a large number of community members submitting patches and suggesting ideas. Changes happen everyday as more and more users want to extend it. Please get involved and post your ideas to the JDIC forum.
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