How Can I Automate Java Installations for PC Apps?

[Daniel Salaciak]

I see there are websites that automatically:

Tell you that you need Java installed on your PC

Let you click to see if your PC is compatible with the latest Java

Tell you what you need for Java to work

Provide a link to download the software (or do so automatically)

I think I've found a site that illustrates what I'm looking for:

Sample Page I Found

I've been assigned the task to implement something similar to the above link for our users.

I need to know how to build our own autocheck similar to the website link in this post.

What tools/utilites to I need?

Do these tools exist?

Where would I find the tools to make the above happen?

Is there an application written that will do this for me?

Or, do I have to write the applets etc. from scratch to make this happen? (Hope not)

Thanks in advance for any direction you can provide me.

Dan

[marc weber]

Welcome to JavaRanch!

This question is a bit advanced for the beginners forum, so I'm promoting it to the intermediate forum.

[Jaime M. Tovar]

Take a look on Java Web Start Tec.

http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/

[Stan James]

Google for "java installer" and find a bunch of them. Sorry I can't recommend any from personal experience.

[Daniel Salaciak]

Originally posted by Jaime Tovar:
Take a look on Java Web Start Tec.

http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/

Thanks for replying Jaime. Your link (above) to the javascript code that analyzes the Java version looks like it could possibly do the trick in getting users to update or install Java JRE. I was curious as to what you think the following site uses to display browser version, adobe reader version, java version etc. etc.

What tool does this site use to display all this information???

I guess I could try and contact the webmaster at this college but I was wondering if any of you either use something similar to this, better than this, or can recommend an alternative to the above web page? We have to query our users: "What version of I.E. are you using? What version of Java do you have? What version of Adobe Reader is installed on your PC? etc. etc." It would be nice to get all that info to display on a web page the user just clicks on and reads off to us. Better yet would be the ability to update Adobe, Java, I.E. etc. right from that same analysis web page. I know this question isn't just about Java so I apologize if I'm pursuing a question that shouldn't be on a Java forum - but I don't know where else to post/look to find a tool that works similar to this website:

How do they do this???

Any further replies appreciated. Thanks everyone for taking a second look and pushing me hopefully further in the right direction.

Regards,

Dan
[ July 24, 2007: Message edited by: Daniel Salaciak ]