JRE Switcher?
December 14, 2009 2:28 AM
What's the easiest way to switch between different JVMs?
I have some applications which unfortunately require specific versions of Java from different vendors - specifically IBM Java. I also need to use Sun Java.
Is there a way to define which version of Java an applet started from the browser calls? I looked for a Firefox extension but could find none.
Just to clarify: I'm not looking to switch between different versions of Sun Java, but between the Sun JRE, IBM JRE, etc.
Anything that makes the same easy for non-applets would also be useful (i.e. without creating custom .bat files)
I have some applications which unfortunately require specific versions of Java from different vendors - specifically IBM Java. I also need to use Sun Java.
Is there a way to define which version of Java an applet started from the browser calls? I looked for a Firefox extension but could find none.
Just to clarify: I'm not looking to switch between different versions of Sun Java, but between the Sun JRE, IBM JRE, etc.
Anything that makes the same easy for non-applets would also be useful (i.e. without creating custom .bat files)
Thanks. I need to use different JVMs in the same browser, i.e. per site or per tab.
posted by devnull at 3:53 AM on December 14, 2009
posted by devnull at 3:53 AM on December 14, 2009
to clarify, are you looking for some way of having the browser prompt the user which JVM/release they want each applet launched in, or do you want to do something like <PARAM name="JVM" value="sun_1_5">?
posted by russm at 3:56 AM on December 14, 2009
posted by russm at 3:56 AM on December 14, 2009
Oh. Well I wouldn't get your hopes up, as that sounds extremely hard to pull off from a technical standpoint. You'd have to essentially write a third party plug-in that installs in Firefox in place of the JVMs' plug-ins and then instantiates and proxies all the API calls to the actual plug-ins. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that at the plug-in API level there's no way to determine which tab a request corresponds to, just the window-id/handle of the control/client area (meaning it would be impossible to tell the difference between two objects in the same page vs. two objects in different tabs.)
posted by Rhomboid at 4:11 AM on December 14, 2009
posted by Rhomboid at 4:11 AM on December 14, 2009
I am with Rhomboid, java gets initialized when firefox starts up. The best option may be run a couple of different vm's using virtualbox or something to test that have different java plugins configured.
posted by dyno04 at 5:42 AM on December 14, 2009
posted by dyno04 at 5:42 AM on December 14, 2009
I don't think you can have 2 different JVM running in the same browser.
(I remember wrestling with various Oracle JVM a couple of years ago - wasn't fun)
A couple of options I see:
- Have a small, universal applet checking which version of Java is running and then loading an applet compiled for this JVM (or instructing the users to change their settings)
- Use jnlp to launch one of the apps
Also, theoratically, you could run IETab in Firefox, or Google Frame in IE and set them up to use a different JVM - but I'm unsure how you'd call it.
posted by motdiem2 at 6:32 AM on December 14, 2009
(I remember wrestling with various Oracle JVM a couple of years ago - wasn't fun)
A couple of options I see:
- Have a small, universal applet checking which version of Java is running and then loading an applet compiled for this JVM (or instructing the users to change their settings)
- Use jnlp to launch one of the apps
Also, theoratically, you could run IETab in Firefox, or Google Frame in IE and set them up to use a different JVM - but I'm unsure how you'd call it.
posted by motdiem2 at 6:32 AM on December 14, 2009
why not use something like Portable Firefox installed twice (this means "unzip the zip file twice") and then install a JVM into each? I'm not sure if that'll work, but I think it might - the portable version of it is supposed to be totally self-contained.
posted by mrg at 9:44 AM on December 14, 2009
posted by mrg at 9:44 AM on December 14, 2009
what OS are you on? On *nix (Linux, OSX) variants, this can be easily accomplished by installing seperate copies of the browser and configuring each copy to use a different version of the JVM. Each can be running, and are completely isolated from each other.
Oh, i see you say .bat files... so you're on Windows. Might still be possible, don't know.
posted by at at 12:21 PM on December 14, 2009
Oh, i see you say .bat files... so you're on Windows. Might still be possible, don't know.
posted by at at 12:21 PM on December 14, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:39 AM on December 14, 2009