Dynamically Open File in Oxygen XML Author Distributed via JavaWebStart

Question

How can we dynamically open a file in an Oxygen XML Author distributed via JWS?

Answer

The JWS packager Ant build file that is included with Oxygen XML Author signs by default the JNLP file (this means that a copy of it is included in the main JAR library) in this step:

<copy file="${outputDir}/${packageName}/${productName}.jnlp" tofile="${home}/JNLP-INF/APPLICATION.JNLP"/>

Signing the JNLP file is required by newer Java versions and means that it is impossible to automatically generate a JNLP file containing some dynamic arguments. The solution is to use the signed JNLP template feature of Java 7, bundle inside the JAR library a signed APPLICATION_TEMPLATE.JNLP instead of an APPLICATION.JNLP with a wildcard command line argument:

<application-desc main-class="ro.sync.jws.JwsDeployer"> 
   <argument>*</argument>
</application-desc>

Then you can replace the wildcard in the external placed JNLP to the actual, dynamic command line arguments value.

A different, more complicated approach would be to have the JNLP file signed and always referenced as a URL argument a location like this:

http://path/to/server/redirectEditedURL.php