Setting up and Launching Instant Messenger

This chapter contains information about configuring the web container and client systems to support Instant Messenger in the following sections:

Enabling Java Web Start

To use Instant Messenger with Java Web start, you need to install the software, then configure your web container to work with Java Web Start. For instructions on installing Java Web Start, go to http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart.

To enable Java Web Start support in your web container, you need to edit the web container’s mime.types file to include the following definition for JNLP:

Content Type: application/x-java-jnlp-file

Suffix: jnlp

This section provides the following instructions:

• To Add the MIME Type to Sun Java System Web Server Enterprise Edition
• To Add the MIME Type to Apache Web Container

To Add the MIME Type to Sun Java System Web Server Enterprise Edition

1. Type the following URL to access the administration server in your browser

   http://_hostname.domain-name:administration-port_
   

   For example, http://budgie.siroe.com:8888
   Sun Java System Web Server displays a window prompting you for a user name and password.

2. Type the administration user name and password you specified during the web container installation.
   The web container displays the Administration Server page.
3. On the Manage Servers page, click Manage.
   The web container displays the Server Manager page.
4. Click the MIME Types link.
5. From the MIME file drop-down list, choose a MIME type to edit and click OK.
6. In the Global MIME Types page, select type from the Category drop-down list.
7. In the Content-Type text box, type application/x-java-jnlp-file
8. In the File-Suffix text box, type jnlp
9. Click New Type to create the MIME type.
10. Restart the web container for this change to take effect.

To Add the MIME Type to Apache Web Container

1. Add the following line to the mime.types file:
   application/x-java-jnlp-file jnlp
   By default, this file is located in the Apache Web Container configuration directory.

Top

Configuring Client Systems for Instant Messaging

If the client machine has the appropriate version of Java installed, there are no additional requirements to use either Java Plug-in or Java Web Start. Netscape Navigator version 7 as well as the recent versions of the Mozilla browser include the latest version of Java, while Internet Explorer does not. If the client machine does not have the required version of Java installed, you need to install Java Web Start. You can download and Install Java from http://www.java.sun.com/j2se.

You can download and install Java Web Start from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp.

Top

Launching Instant Messenger

You can invoke Instant Messenger as an applet within a web browser, or as a standalone application as described in the following sections:

• Invoking Instant Messenger From a Web Browser
• Invoking Instant Messenger as a Standalone Application

Invoking Instant Messenger From a Web Browser

To invoke Instant Messenger as an applet within a web browser, perform the following steps:

1. Start the web browser.
2. Go to the Instant Messaging home page.
   By default, the home page is stored as index.html. Use the following format to locate the Instant Messaging home page.
   http://codebase/index.html
   Where codebase is the URL that corresponds to the location of the resource files on the web container.
3. Click Use Java Plug-In.
   If you customized the home page and changed the link text, click the link that corresponds to invoking Instant Messenger as an applet within a browser. The link points to either im.jnlp (standard and TLS mode) or imssl.jnlp (legacy SSL mode).
   When the Instant Messenger session is established using the Java Plug-in, the browser window must be dedicated to its use.
   You cannot locate any other URLs with this browser window, nor can you close the browser window without terminating the Instant Messenger session.

Top

Invoking Instant Messenger as a Standalone Application

To invoke Instant Messenger as a standalone application, perform the following steps:

1. Start the web browser.
2. Go to the Instant Messaging home page.
   By default, the home page is stored as index.html. Use the following format to locate the Instant Messaging home page.
   http://codebase/index.html
   Where codebase is the URL that corresponds to the location of the resource files on the web container.
3. Click Start.
   If you customized the home page and changed the link text, click the link that corresponds to invoking Instant Messenger using Java Web Start. The link points to either im.html (standard or TLS mode) or imssl.html (legacy SSL mode).
   See Customizing Instant Messenger for information on customizing the resource pages.