Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
Java Open Clients

Signing an Open Client applet

When preparing your Java applet for download with a digital certificate, you must sign your code.

To sign the code:

Generate your Java proxy. For more information, see OpenEdge Development: Open Client Introduction and Programming .
Code your applet.
Create a .cab file for Internet Explorer browsers and a .jar file for Netscape browsers for the Java applet code and proxy you created that includes a digital signature to download the applet. For instructions about completing these tasks, see the Microsoft SDK for Java and the Netscape Object Signing Tools documentation.
To sign your code, you need a code signing certificate. While both browsers allow you to create a test digital certificate, you need a real digital certificate to distribute your application. If you distribute your application over the Internet, you usually get a digital certificate from a public PKI provider like VeriSign. If you distribute your application on a company intranet, you can set up a digital certificate server and create your own certificates.

The steps for setting up and operating your own certificate server are not covered in this document. You can get information about this from the Microsoft or Netscape Web sites.

Note: Although both Microsoft and Netscape use a standard digital certificate format, the disk storage formats used in the respective signing tools are not interoperable. As a result, you must get separate digital certificates if you want to support both Microsoft and Netscape browsers.

OpenEdge provides the Open Client Runtime packages in digitally signed .cab and .jar files, so you can distribute these directly without additional work. These .cab and .jar files are located in the Java directory under your OpenEdge installation directory and have filenames beginning with o4glrt. For more information about which of these files to choose for your Java applet see the information on selecting an Open Client Runtime package in OpenEdge Development: Open Client Introduction and Programming .

When you embed an Open Client Runtime package in a Web page, a verification dialog box automatically opens when a user accesses the page. The user has the option of accepting or not accepting the installation of the Open Client Runtime. If the user does not accept, the Open Client is not installed, and your Open Client applet cannot be run.