Launching RR from a web page

[Gordon Tillman]

Howdy Len,

This is a very interesting problem, one that I would like to be able to 
implement as well.

On Mar 24, 2005, at 08:40, Len Morgan wrote:

> There was a thread about 3 years ago about having a RR that ran within 
> the browser and I'm wondering if anything came of that?  The reason I 
> ask is I have a very good chance of getting a big programming contract 
> but one of the customer's top requirements is that it be web based.  
> He wants nothing to be installed on the workstations.
>
> While I could send DHTML, I think we all agree that RR would give a 
> much better experience to the end user and frankly, would be much 
> easier on me.  So, is there some way to launch a stand-alone from a 
> web page?  I know I can "start using" a stack from a URL so I'd only 
> need a stand-alone to get the process going.  I think his concerns 
> are:
>
> 1) The "java version problem."  A lot of his users have their own 
> programs (by the way, we're talking about 500 connected users) that 
> use one version of java or another and if they upgrade it to be able 
> to use my code, it will break the applications they already have (by 
> the way, I have no intention of doing this in java - I'd rather loose 
> the contract).
> 2) If changes need to be made, he doesn't want to have to go to 500 
> machines and install something.
>
> With my own stand-alone, I wouldn't have to worry about versioning 
> problems since I would know when it changed.  I could also check for a 
> new version of the stand-alone every time I start it up and get the 
> new version.  Since my stand-alone would really do nothing more than 
> download a stack (with the REAL program on it), I doubt that I would 
> need to change it that often (the stacks on the other hand are a 
> different matter but since I can refer to a URL, he'd be ok with that. 
>  It's just that I'm not sure how to get the stand-alone on the user 
> machine without looking like I'm installing something.

Are your clients using Windows machines?  The reason I ask is that 
there is no problem with having more than one version of Java installed 
on the machine, if you are concerned with breaking existing Java-based 
code.  We do that all the time.

I wonder if it would be possible to create a small signed applet whose 
sole purpose in life would be to download and run your RR startup 
application.  The startup application would then be able to manage the 
acquisition and updating of the other application stacks required to do 
what you need it to do.

I will experiment with this a bit and get back to you.

--gordy