User Guide

Using the Java Plugin

Popular web browsers, such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, come with a default JRE, under which applets and Java beans are run, already installed. If you want to run applets under BEA JRockit JRE, you can implement the Java plug-in that ships with this product.

Available only on IA32 implementations, the BEA JRockit Java plug-in extends the functionality of your web browser, allowing applets and Java beans run under it rather than its default JRE. The Java Plug-in is part of the BEA JRockit JRE and is installed when the JRE is installed on a computer. It works with both Netscape and Internet Explorer.

This section includes information on the following subjects:

Supported Operating Systems and Browsers

Table B-1 lists the operating systems and browsers supported by the BEA JRockit Java plug-in.

Table B-1 Java-in Plugin O/S and Browser

Operating System Support

For a list of supported operating systems, see the list of supported AI32 platforms at BEA JRockit 1.4.2 SDK Platform Support.

Browser Support

Netscape 4.7.x, 6.2.2, 7

Mozilla 1.2.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.4.1

Internet Explorer 5.5 (SP2+), 6.x

For information on the latest browser support see:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/system-configurations.html

Note: Netscape 4.79 will only run applets that are specifically tagged to be run by 1.4.2_04. You can find examples of these applets in the linux32 and win32 demos available in demo/plugin/applet/* at:

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13188_01/jrockit/docs142/demo_src.html.

Download either jrockit-j2sdk1.4.2_04-win32-demo.zip or jrockit-j2sdk1.4.2_04-linux32-demo.zip (depending upon your operating system) and extract the necessary demos.

Installing the Plugin

The Java plugin is installed automatically for Win32 machines when you install BEA JRockit JRE, as described in Installing the JRE. For Linux32 machines, you can install it as described in either of these documents from Sun Microsystems:

Manual Installation/Registration of Java Plug-in—Linux (manual installation and registration)
Control Panel Script Options for Plug-in Registration (automatic installation and registration)

Note on Installing the BEA JRockit Plugin and Sun Plugin

If you installing the Sun JRE after installing the BEA JRockit JRE, the Sun JRE will become the default Java Plugin on the system. If this happens, you should uninstall and reinstall the BEA JRockit JRE again.

Implementing the Plugin

You can implement the BEA JRockit Java plug-in the same way you would implement a similar product from Sun Microsystems; that is, by using one of these two different methods:

Including the conventional APPLET tag in a web page, as described in Using the Conventional APPLET Tag.

Replacing the APPLET tag with the OBJECT tag for Internet Explorer or by replacing the APPLET tag with the EMBED tag for Netscape 4. Be aware that the OBJECT and EMBED tags must conform to a special format as described in the Sun Microsystems document, Using OBJECT, EMBED and APPLET Tags in Java Plug-in.

Plugin Reference

Generally, once the plug-in is installed, its behavior will be transparent and require little, if any, user intervention. However, there are many other related topics that you may want to understand. Sun Microsystems provides helpful information on their Java Plugin that is helpful to BEA JRockit Java plug-in users. You can find this information at:

http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/reference/docs/index.html

Detailed information of particular interest to developers can be found in Sun Microsystems' Java Plug-in 1.4.2 Developer Guide. This document contains such information as

How proxy configuration works in Java Plugin.
What protocols does the Java Plugin support.
Discussions on cookie support and caching.
Behavior of Java Plugin and how set options via the Java Plugin Control Panel.
How to deploy the Java Plugin on the Internet, within an intranet, via Java Server Pages, and so on.
Plugin security, including RSA signed applet verification.
Java Plugin debugging support for applets.
Supporting multiple JREs in the same environment, Java-to-JavaScript communication, how to persist applets across browser sessions, and other advance topics.