How to deploy Instant JChem using Java Web Start on your server

This document describes how to deploy the Java Web Start version of Instant JChem to your own server. This is relevant to administrators, not end users. If you also want to use shared projects and shared urls you should read How to access data in Instant JChem using URLs.

Why deploy the Java Web Start version to your server
What you need
Setting up the Java Web Start version
Updating the Java Web Start version

Why deploy the Java Web Start version to your server?

There are several potential reasons:

You have control over when the new versions are deployed to your users
You can test a new version prior to deploying to your users
You have control over the timing of the JChem table regeneration
Users have faster download speeds when updating

In addition, you can also deploy pre-configured projects and database connections to your users, so that they do not need to configure anything themselves. Databases, forms, queries and lists will magically appear for them without them needing to do anything. See here for details.

What you need

The Java Web Start version of Instant JChem can be deployed to a standard web server. Your users will run Instant JChem by launching it from a web page on that server.

You must have an IJC enterprise license to deploy to your own server using Java Web Start.

Setting up the Java Web Start version

1. Download the IJC zip file

All the files you need are provided in a zip file that is located in the directory on the ChemAxon server that provides the publically available Java Web Start version of IJC. Download this file from here.

2. Unzip the files to your web server

Unzip the files to the location on your web server that you want to deploy from. For illustration purposes we assume you have unzipped to a directory that called IJC that is accessed from your web server as http://myserver.mycompany.com/ijc

3. Edit the file master.jnlp

The file master.jnlp is the file that contains the JNLP deployment information. You MUST change the codebase definition on the second line so that it refers to the correct location on your web server. e.g. codebase="http://myserver.mycompany.com/ijc"

You can optionally edit the descriptions and icon if you want to change what your users see.

You may also edit the settings in the shortcut element. By default the online attribute is set to false to allow users to access the program when they don't have a network connection. But this means that users can potentially not get any updates immediately which can result in different versions being in use at the same time. If it makes no sense for your users to use IJC in offline mode (e.g. they will be using networked databases) then you are recommended to set this to true so that users will pick up updates immediately.

For other settings look at:

4. Edit the file info.properties

In this file edit the property "__ijc_version". This defines the name of the directory that the IJC application is installed into as well as the name of the user directory that contains the user's settings. By default this is set to a value containing the version of IJC (e.g. 2.2.0). This would result in new directories being used for each version, and users would loose all their settings when this happened. This is generally a bad thing, so we recommend changing this to a fixed value. The convention used for the publically available version is to include the server name as part of this to ensure that versions and settings remain distinct between different versions (e.g. one loaded from chemaxon.com and one from your server). If you follow this convention you will use a value like this:
__ijc_version=myserver.mycompany.com_stable
but you can use any value you like here, but choose carefully.

When IJC launches these directories will be created in the .instantjchem directory which is located in the users home directory.

Setting `obsolete_versions` property

Inside info.properties, there is a commented-out section allowing you to define deprecated installations and user directories, specified by IJC version. These values are supposed to be comma separated, as in the following example:
obsolete_versions=5.4,5.5

Specified versions will get deleted upon new JWS installation. Users will be asked for approval by a confirmation dialog.

This setting is generally not needed, as new versions usually don't collide with the later ones.

4. Edit the file index.html

This is the web page from which your users will launch IJC. Edit this as you wish, but retain the link to the master.jnlp file that launches IJC.

5. Test it

Point your browser to http://myserver.mycompany.com/ijc/ and check it all works.

If you find problems or have any questions then please report them to the IJC forum.

Updating the Java Web Start version

When an updated version of Instant JChem is available you will need to update your version. These are the steps:

1. Test the updated version

Test the updated version to confirm that it meets your needs. You control the deployment to your server so you can make sure that the new version works the way you want prior to updating. You can test the Java Web Start version that is present at ChemAxon

2. Download the IJC zip file

Download the updated version file from here.

3. Unzip the contents to a separate directory

Unzip the contents of the zip file to a separate directory. You will need to make changes to the files before updating the contents of your server.

4. Edit the contents

Modify the contents of the files as follows:

File	Edit	Deploy
frame.gif	You can provide you own custom icon if you wish	No need to re-deploy this file unless it has been updated
index.html	You probably already have your own index.html so do not need this file	Keep you own index.html and not deploy this file
info.properties	You must edit this file to update the __ijc_version to the value being used on your severer. e.g. in the example above: `__ijc_version=myserver.mycompany.com_stable`	You must deploy this file
instantjchem.zip	Do not modify this file	You must deploy this file
JNLPInstaller.jar	Do not modify this file	You must deploy this file
master.jnlp	You may have customized this file when you first deployed.	Do not deploy this file, but do check for any changes that might improve your configuration.

5. Deploy the updated files

Update the appropriate files on your sever. See the comments in the previous section about which files should be deployed.

Do you have a question? Would you like to learn more? Please browse among the related topics on our support forum or search the website. If you want to suggest modifications or improvements to our documentation email our support directly!