Appendix  B

Distributing Applets and Applications

Using JClass JarMaster to Customize the Deployment Archive

B.1 Using JClass JarMaster to Customize the Deployment Archive

The size of the archive and its related download time are important factors to consider when deploying your applet or application.

When you create an applet or an application using third-party classes such as JClass components, your deployment archive will contain many unused class files unless you customize your JAR. Optimally, the deployment JAR should contain only your classes and the third-party classes you actually use. For example, the jcchart.jar, which you used to develop your applet or application, contains classes and packages that are only useful during the development process and that are not referenced by your application. These classes include the Property Editors and BeanInfo classes. JClass JarMaster helps you create a deployment JAR that contains only the class files required to run your application.

JClass JarMaster is a robust utility that allows you to customize and reduce the size of the deployment archive quickly and easily. Using JClass JarMaster you can select the classes you know must belong in your JAR, and JarMaster will automatically search for all of the direct and indirect dependencies (supporting classes).

When you optimize the size of the deployment JAR with JClass JarMaster, you save yourself the time and trouble of building a JAR manually and determining the necessity of each class or package. Your deployment JAR will take less time to load and will use less space on your server as a direct result of excluding all of the classes that are never used by your applet or application.

For more information about using JarMaster to create and edit JARs, please consult its online documentation.

JClass JarMaster is installed automatically as part of the install process for JClass DesktopViews. For more details please refer to Quest Software's Web site.