Follow the steps outlined in Chapter 2 - Deploying to An External Web Server.

Ensure this web server has MIME types set compatible with Java Web Start applications. To set the required MIME type, perform the following steps:

Microsoft Internet Information Services

Apache Tomcat Servers

Create a webpage that Visual Designer users can access. Ensure this page contains a link to the .jnlp file stored on the Web Server. This page should auto detect if the user has a Java Runtime Environment installed on their system, and either load the application or direct the user to Sun Microsystem's website to download the JRE. The following scripting code demonstrates how to do this:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">

// Detecting if Web Start is installed on Netscape

var javawsInstalled = 0;  
var javaws142Installed=0;
var javaws150Installed=0;
isIE = "false";
 if (navigator.mimeTypes && navigator.mimeTypes.length)
 {
    x = navigator.mimeTypes['application/x-java-jnlp-file'];    
    if (x) 
    { 
       javawsInstalled = 1;
       javaws142Installed=1;
       javaws150Installed=1;   
    } 
 } 
 else 
 {
    isIE = "true";
 }
</SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBScript">

'Detects is Java Web Start is installed on IE, and if so, the version

on error resume next
If isIE = "true" Then
  If Not(IsObject(CreateObject("JavaWebStart.isInstalled"))) Then
     javawsInstalled = 0
  Else
     javawsInstalled = 1
  End If
  If Not(IsObject(CreateObject("JavaWebStart.isInstalled.1.4.2.0"))) Then
     javaws142Installed = 0
  Else
     javaws142Installed = 1
  End If 
  If Not(IsObject(CreateObject("JavaWebStart.isInstalled.1.5.0.0"))) Then
     javaws150Installed = 0
  Else
     javaws150Installed = 1
  End If  
End If
</SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">

// Launches application if Java Web Start is installed, otherwise
// redirects to a Java Runtime Environment Download

/* Note that the logic below always launches the JNLP application 
 *if the browser is Gecko based. This is because it is not possible 
 *to detect MIME type application/x-java-jnlp-file on Gecko-based browsers.
*/

document.write("Click ");

if(javawsInstalled || (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Gecko") !=-1))
{
    document.write("<a href=../../../redistributables/editlivexml/XXXXXXXX.jnlp>here</a>");
    document.write(" to launch the Visual Designer Desktop Application");
}
else
{
    document.write("<a href=http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.html>");
    document.write("to download and install JRE 5.0 and 
        the application.");
}
</SCRIPT>

After clicking on the link and downloading the Designer, users will be prompted with a message box asking if they want to have the Visual Designer integrated into their desktop environment. Users are advised to select Yes.

If users selected Yes in the previous step, they will now have a shortcut on their desktop allowing access to the Visual Designer.