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====== Fix JNLP Support in Firefox ======
===== Intro =====
So I couldn't get a  JNLP file to open correctly through [[wp>firefox|Firefox]] in Linux.  Clicking on a ''.jnlp'' file on a web page would just bring up the download dialog instead of actually opening Java WebStart.  This was pissing me off to no end.  I finally had some time and the need to get this working so I dug in and figured out how to fix this.  Follow the steps below and you should be up and running as well.

===== Check for the Java Plugin =====
The first thing that needs to be done is to check for the existence of a Java plugin in your browser.  This, thankfully, is a simple task.

First, open Firefox (obviously) and open a tab.  Type ''about:plugins'' in the tab and hit Enter.  This will show you a listing of all the plugins your browser can currently use.  It should look something like the following:

{{apps:firefox:java_plugin.png|}}

If you see a Java plugin, you should be good to go to move on to the next step.  If not, make sure that you have Java installed and that plugin file, ''libjavaplugin_oji.so'' is in your plugins directory.  This varies depending on your linux platform.

===== Open Your Profile's Mimetypes File =====
In your home directory, you should have a hidden directory named something like ''.mozilla'', ''.firefox'' or ''.mozilla-firefox''.  On my [[http://gentoo.org|Gentoo]] boxes, it's ''.mozilla''.  Open that directory.  

On my  [[http://gentoo.org|Gentoo]] box, there is a directory in there called ''firefox''.  If you are using a distro where you have a ''.firefox'' or ''.mozilla-firefox'' directory in your home directory, you probably won't see this.  Now open that ''firefox'' directory (if you have it).

In this directory you should something like this:

<code>
$ ls -l
total 13
drwx------ 7 jdeiman jdeiman 1192 May 11 10:57 g8mizwd9.default
-rw------- 1 jdeiman jdeiman 8093 May 11 10:36 pluginreg.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 jdeiman jdeiman   94 Feb 27 12:25 profiles.ini
</code>

What we are interested in here is the ''<random characters>.default'' directory which is your default user profile.  In this case, ''g8mizwd9.default''.  Open that directory.

In this directory there are a number of files and directories.  The file we are interested in is ''mimeTypes.rdf''.  Open this file in your favorite text editor.  You should notice quickly that this is just an [[wp>xml|XML]] document.  Now search the file for //jnlp//.  Hopefully, you already have an entry in here for jnlp files, but it is just misconfigured.  If you don't find a line like the next block, skip down to [[#Adding All the JNLP Entries]], otherwise just continue on from here.

<code xml>
<RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:application/x-java-jnlp-file"/>
</code>

Ok, so you have a reference to the mime type for jnlp files, it's just not setup correctly.  If you scroll down near the bottom of the file, you should see a section like this:

<code xml>
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-java-jnlp-file"
                   NC:path="/usr/bin/run-java-tool"
                   NC:prettyName="run-java-tool" />
</code>

The main thing you are looking for is the attribute ''RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-java-jnlp-file"''.  There are a couple other sections that look similar to this, so make sure you have the right one.

What I did, was copy this section, paste it right below the original and then comment out the original in case I made a mistake.  That way I could just delete my change and uncomment the original and be back to square one.  This change should look like the following:

<code xml>
  <!--
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-java-jnlp-file"
                   NC:path="/usr/bin/run-java-tool"
                   NC:prettyName="run-java-tool" />
  -->
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-java-jnlp-file"
                   NC:path="/usr/bin/run-java-tool"
                   NC:prettyName="run-java-tool" />
</code>

The next step is finding out where your ''javaws'' binary is.  This is going to vary quite a bit between distros, but hopefully it should be an easy thing to find.  I just opened a terminal window and ran a ''which'' command:

<code>
$ which javaws
/usr/bin/javaws
</code>

If the binary is in your path, you should get something similar to that for a response.  If not, you can try to find it using ''locate'' or possibly :

<code>
$ find /usr -name 'javaws' -print
</code>

That will search ''/usr'' for the file, which is sometimes in ''libexec'' or some other place.

Once you've found the full path to the file, the rest is easy.  Just change the ''NC:path'' and ''NC:prettyName'' in that new section we made in ''mimeTypes.rdf''.  It will end up looking like this (providing ''javaws'' is in ''/usr/bin''):

<code xml>
  <!--
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-java-jnlp-file"
                   NC:path="/usr/bin/run-java-tool"
                   NC:prettyName="run-java-tool" />
  -->
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-java-jnlp-file"
                   NC:path="/usr/bin/javaws"
                   NC:prettyName="javaws" />
</code>

Now, save the file, restart Firefox, and try it out somewhere like here: [[http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/demos.html]]


===== Adding All the JNLP Entries =====
If you didn't have any reference to the JNLP mime type in ''mimeTypes.rdf'', we are going to have to create them all.  I would highly recommend **BACKING UP YOUR ORIGINAL FILE** before proceeding.

<code>
$ cp mimeTypes.rdf mimeTypes.rdf.bak
</code>

First off, I will show you my entire ''mimeTypes.rdf'' file and then we will concentrate on the specific changes that need to be made.
<code xml>
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<RDF:RDF xmlns:NC="http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#"
         xmlns:RDF="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:text/nzb"
                   NC:alwaysAsk="true"
                   NC:saveToDisk="true">
    <NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:text/nzb"/>
  </RDF:Description>
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-tar"
                   NC:prettyName=""
                   NC:path="" />
  <RDF:Seq RDF:about="urn:mimetypes:root">
    <RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:application/x-tar"/>
    <RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:text/nzb"/>
    <RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:application/pdf"/>
    <RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:application/x-java-jnlp-file"/>
  </RDF:Seq>
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/pdf"
                   NC:path="/usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin/acroread"
                   NC:prettyName="acroread" />
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/x-java-jnlp-file"
                   NC:fileExtensions="jnlp"
                   NC:description=""
                   NC:value="application/x-java-jnlp-file"
                   NC:editable="true">
    <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-java-jnlp-file"/>
  </RDF:Description>
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/x-tar"
                   NC:value="application/x-tar"
                   NC:editable="true"
                   NC:fileExtensions="tar"
                   NC:description="">
    <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-tar"/>
  </RDF:Description>
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetypes">
    <NC:MIME-types RDF:resource="urn:mimetypes:root"/>
  </RDF:Description>
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-tar"
                   NC:alwaysAsk="true"
                   NC:saveToDisk="true">
    <NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-tar"/>
  </RDF:Description>
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-java-jnlp-file"
                   NC:alwaysAsk="false"
                   NC:saveToDisk="false"
                   NC:useSystemDefault="false"
                   NC:handleInternal="false">
    <NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-java-jnlp-file"/>
  </RDF:Description>
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/pdf"
                   NC:alwaysAsk="true"
                   NC:saveToDisk="false"
                   NC:useSystemDefault="false"
                   NC:handleInternal="false">
    <NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/pdf"/>
  </RDF:Description>
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:text/nzb"
                   NC:value="text/nzb"
                   NC:editable="true"
                   NC:description="">
    <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:text/nzb"/>
  </RDF:Description>
  <!--
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-java-jnlp-file"
                   NC:path="/usr/bin/run-java-tool"
                   NC:prettyName="run-java-tool" />
  -->
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-java-jnlp-file"
                   NC:path="/usr/bin/javaws"
                   NC:prettyName="javaws" />
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:text/nzb"
                   NC:prettyName=""
                   NC:path="" />
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/pdf"
                   NC:value="application/pdf"
                   NC:editable="true"
                   NC:fileExtensions="pdf"
                   NC:description="">
    <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/pdf"/>
  </RDF:Description>
</RDF:RDF>
</code>

Ok, so, to start, you need to add the following line in the section ''<RDF:Seq RDF:about="urn:mimetypes:root">'':

<code xml>
  <RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:application/x-java-jnlp-file"/>
</code>

After that section, specifically after the line, ''</RDF:Seq>'', we need to add the following:

<code xml>
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/x-java-jnlp-file"
                   NC:fileExtensions="jnlp"
                   NC:description=""
                   NC:value="application/x-java-jnlp-file"
                   NC:editable="true">
    <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-java-jnlp-file"/>
  </RDF:Description>
</code>

Below that, add this:

<code xml>
  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-java-jnlp-file"
                   NC:alwaysAsk="false"
                   NC:saveToDisk="false"
                   NC:useSystemDefault="false"
                   NC:handleInternal="false">
    <NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-java-jnlp-file"/>
  </RDF:Description>
</code>


Almost done, one more section to add:

<code xml>
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-java-jnlp-file"
                   NC:path="/usr/bin/javaws"
                   NC:prettyName="javaws" />
</code>

You should be able to save the file, restart Firefox and test out the changes at some place like [[http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/demos.html]]

~~DISCUSSION~~