Project Initium: Programmatic Deployment

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; In practice, there is. Abstract This paper describes the design and use of a Java Web Start framework called Initium. Initium generates a jar file that minimizes the number of included classes by performing a static class dependency analysis. It then prompts the programmer for security parameters that enable the programmatic signing of the jar file, for the purpose of authentication. Initium generates a local Java Network Launch Protocol file (JNLP file) for the purpose of testing, as well as a remote JNLP file, for deployment. Finally, Initium programmatically uploads both the JNLP and jar files to the web server, to complete the deployment cycle. The signing of a jar file enables web start clients to execute a Java application in a trusted and distributed manner. Trusted jar files can be executed outside of the " sandbox " and thus be given access to files, or be able to open connections to hosts other than the web host on the target system. Initium is a Latin word that means: " at the start ". It is part of an ongoing project at both We are given a client-side application, written in Java, which is ready for deployment. Our goal is to find a way to deploy the application to any target desktop, upon demand. The solution to this problem is subject to the constraint that: the application is allowed to run while the target system is offline, the application has no security restrictions, and the application be automatically updated. Further, we seek to minimize the time and effort