About

This is a NodeJS utility & library for running Java Web Start packages with a java version that does not (no longer) include the javaws feature. The utility is written in TypeScript, and comes packaged an installable as an NPM package.

Why this tool?

At some point I found myself without a suitable Java runtime that could still run a Java Web Start package, which I needed in order to validate some files to be uploaded to the tax administration. Checking the JNLP file and running the tool manually was easy enough, but I still felt... a new tool could come in handy... so here we are...

Features

Downloading a JNLP specified from an http or https url
Using a locally stored JNLP file
Parsing the downloaded/read JNLP file
Downloading the JNLP jar files, with a progress bar
Caching JNLP jar files (auto check for newer version)
Running the JNLP from the downloaded or cached Jar files
Interrupting The running Java process when the Node process is interrupted
Redirecting java stdout, stderr to the Node process
Redirecting Node stdin, to the Java process
Verfifying the Jar's signatures using jarsigner (if installed)

Dependencies

A suitable version of Java must be installed on your system.
A suitable JDK must be installed in order to be able to use the jarsigner validation
This library uses the libxmljs2 and cli-progress libraries.

Installing

npm -g install javawebstart

Usage

Via CLI

# If locally installed via npm install  -g
javawebstart <jnlp-url> [--trust]

# Via NPX
npx -g javawebstart <jnlp-url>

Via API

It is possible to use this module as an API as well.

// Import the main class of the library
import {JavaWebStart} from "javawebstart";

// Download a remote or local JNLP file
let starter = await JavaWebStart.downloadJNLP(jnlpUrl);

// OR use existing XML
starter = new JavaWebStart(myJNLPXml);

// Optionally, await the download first or only
// await starter.download();

// Or just run (potentially with options)
await starter.run();

Run options

The run method can taken an options object, with the following optional properties:

Explicitly trust the jar
A jar location
An alternative 'WritableStream' for
- stdout
- stderr
An alternative `ReadableStream' for the reading input

Credits

cli-progress

LICENSE

libxmljs2