Launching an application from a browser (platform and browser independent), best approach?

Question

Hello,

Please forgive a question that has been addressed in some form or fashion previously. I have numerous test applications that run on various platforms from Windows 95, Windows XP, SUSE, RedHat, and other forms of *NIX. Currently, the mechanism has a native application that queries a database for some information then launches the test application to perform the test. This said program is a "launcher application" which I am trying to convert to a "HTML/Javascript Launcher Application". In addition, this "launcher application" needs to known when the test application is completed, then collect the test result then store the results in a database.

I have read that launching an application (executable) from HTML is not permitted, but this is entirely true in the sense (if I understand correctly). From what I have read here on SO and other sites, I have the following possible solutions:

1. Registering a unique protocol to an test application (SO Link)
2. Using Java to launch the application
3. Adobe AIR or its opensource counter part, Titanium by Appcelerator
4. Using WSH, though this will only work on Windows platforms

What would be a good (or best ) approach to solution this problem? Ideally, I would like to just use HTML and Javascript, but this may not be possible? Thanks for any advice and any example/sample code would be greatly appreciated.

Mark

Answer 1

Hopefully many people will think, as I do, that this is a 'bad idea'™, simply because in order for it to work you must allow your browser to launch software, which would be a huge hole in security, allowing access for all sorts of nasties.

Given you are cross platform I'd suggest you stick with a dedicated laucher application, but code it in java. This is the most common solution used in the java applications world which regularly crosses os's.

Answer 2

You could give JNLP (java network launch protocol) a try... Really easy to distribute and deploy full fledged applications in a platform independent manner. More or less through the browser if you like...