Java 8 Client Supprt

craymond · ‎Oct 15, 2014

Seeing as Oracle is now pushing Java 8 Update 25, I was wondering what the official position is on client support? I am particulary intereted in Windchil 10.1 M040 as we will be at that version for a while yet. I'm also sure our security organization will be demanding we upgrade the client JRE regardless of what PTC officially supports. So, I'm also wondering what affects we might expect if we are forced to upgrade.

Thanks in advance.

Have a nice day!

Craig

jessh · ‎Oct 15, 2014

Java 8 client support is being pursued for 10.2 M030.

This may well also need to be provided for 10.2 M020/M022 and 10.1 M050.

It seems doubtful that it would reach 10.1 M040, however -- as the
testing time/effort (and potentially patching) required to support a new
platform version is usually only applied to the latest available MOR.
[There are, of course, lots of fixes in M050 as well that one should
have...]

craymond · ‎Oct 15, 2014

Thanks Jess.

So I guess the bottom line is we need a few guinea pigs to test all the applets to see what happens.

Moving to a higher release would be nice, but as always it is a cost and resource issue.

Craig Raymond
Windchill / Web Developer

BAE Systems
Enterprise Shared Services
ES Eng Tools
1098 Clark St
Bldg. 46, Fl 2, Grid D44
Endicott, NY 13760

jessh · ‎Oct 15, 2014

One note:

Java 8 changes the Java Plug-In security model once again.

As a result Windchill applets will not function under the Java 8 Plug-In
unless/until RMI tunneling is enabled on the server -- as the Java 8
Plug-In itself rejects direct RMI communication attempts.

craymond · ‎Oct 16, 2014

Currently I have it working in IE 9 (the lifecyclemanager applet loads - haven't done any serious testing yet). I had to add the following to our company xconf that is included in site.xconf

<property name="wt.rmi.clientSocketFactory" overridable="true" targetfile="codebase/wt.properties" value="wt.boot.WTRMIMasterSocketFactory"/">

Firefox isn't happy with our internal certificate path for the deployment.jar, not PTC's fault just something I have to sort out.

Chrome won't load the java plugin for some reason, haven't figured that out yet. Maybe because I'm on the dev change at version 40?

Craig Raymond
Windchill / Web Developer

BAE Systems
Enterprise Shared Services
ES Eng Tools
1098 Clark St
Bldg. 46, Fl 2, Grid D44
Endicott, NY 13760

jessh · ‎Oct 16, 2014

If you're using a deployment rule set, then you will have things to sort
out if you're not using a certificate purchased from a certificate
authority that is trusted by the Java Plug-In.

As for Chrome, at some version in the near future they are simply
dropping all support for the entire plug-in API upon which the Java
Plug-In is based -- at which point it will no longer support applets.

On 10/16/2014 8:06 AM, Raymond, Craig (US SSA) wrote:
>
> Currently I have it working in IE 9 (the lifecyclemanager applet loads
> - haven't done any serious testing yet). I had to add the following
> to our company xconf that is included in site.xconf
>
> <property name="wt.rmi.clientSocketFactory" overridable="true" <br="/>> targetFile="codebase/wt.properties"
> value="wt.boot.WTRMIMasterSocketFactory"/>
>
> Firefox isn't happy with our internal certificate path for the
> deployment.jar, not PTC's fault just something I have to sort out.
>
> Chrome won't load the java plugin for some reason, haven't figured
> that out yet. Maybe because I'm on the dev change at version 40?
>
> **
>
> *Craig Raymond*
>
> Windchill / Web Developer
>
> BAE Systems
>
> Enterprise Shared Services
>
> ES Eng Tools
>
> 1098 Clark St
>
> Bldg. 46, Fl 2, Grid D44
>
> Endicott, NY 13760
>
> Work: 607.770.2349, Mobile: 607.221.1421 Fax: 607.770.3594
>
> *From:*Raymond, Craig (US SSA) [
> *Subject:* [solutions] - RE: Java 8 Client Supprt
>
> Java 8 client support is being pursued for 10.2 M030.
>
> This may well also need to be provided for 10.2 M020/M022 and 10.1 M050.
>
> It seems doubtful that it would reach 10.1 M040, however -- as the
> testing time/effort (and potentially patching) required to support a
> new platform version is usually only applied to the latest available
> MOR. [There are, of course, lots of fixes in M050 as well that one
> should have...]
>
>

craymond · ‎Oct 16, 2014

I've seen that it's dropping NPAPI support, but Firefox shows a "Next Generation ..." plugin. I thought, perhaps incorrectly, that the newer plugins weren't based on NPAPI? I don't seem to see anything in my searches as of yet on what version of chrome NPAPI goes away permanently, just mentions of it being this year.

Since I am on the dev channel are 40 something, it certainly is possible that Java support is dropped at that version.

Craig Raymond
Windchill / Web Developer

BAE Systems
Enterprise Shared Services
ES Eng Tools
1098 Clark St
Bldg. 46, Fl 2, Grid D44
Endicott, NY 13760

mdebower · ‎Oct 16, 2014

I know the document upload applet won't work. One of the guys here ran into that on Monday. No workaround to get it going either. Choice was to downgrade java back to 7 or switch to using basic browser functionality.

-marc

jessh · ‎Oct 16, 2014

I'm pretty sure that the document upload applet does work in the latest
Windchill versions with Java 8, i.e. that's not one of the compatibility
issues I noticed (once RMI tunneling is enabled).

jessh · ‎Oct 16, 2014

The "Next Generation" Plug-In shown in the Java Control Panel is now
pretty old news. It doesn't change whether NPAPI is used.

My understanding is that:

1. Chrome's new Plug-In API doesn't allow one to do the sorts of things
the Java Plug-In needs to do
2. Oracle has no plans to make any attempt to use the new Chrome
plug-in API
* Perhaps due to #1, perhaps not

--
Jess Holle

On 10/16/2014 9:38 AM, Raymond, Craig (US SSA) wrote:
>
> I've seen that it's dropping NPAPI support, but Firefox shows a "Next
> Generation …" plugin. I thought, perhaps incorrectly, that the newer
> plugins weren't based on NPAPI? I don't seem to see anything in my
> searches as of yet on what version of chrome NPAPI goes away
> permanently, just mentions of it being this year.
>
> Since I am on the dev channel are 40 something, it certainly is
> possible that Java support is dropped at that version.
>
> **
>
> *Craig Raymond*
>
> Windchill / Web Developer
>
> BAE Systems
>
> Enterprise Shared Services
>
> ES Eng Tools
>
> 1098 Clark St
>
> Bldg. 46, Fl 2, Grid D44
>
> Endicott, NY 13760
>
> Work: 607.770.2349, Mobile: 607.221.1421 Fax: 607.770.3594
>
> *From:*Jess Holle [
> value="wt.boot.WTRMIMasterSocketFactory"/>
>
> Firefox isn't happy with our internal certificate path for the
> deployment.jar, not PTC's fault just something I have to sort out.
>
> Chrome won't load the java plugin for some reason, haven't figured
> that out yet. Maybe because I'm on the dev change at...

> *Subject:* [solutions] - RE: Java 8 Client Supprt
>
> Thanks Jess.
>
> So I guess the bottom line is we need a few guinea pigs to test
> all the applets to see what happens.
>
> Moving to a higher release would be nice, but as always it is a
> cost and resource issue.
>
> **
>
> *Craig Raymond*
>
> Windchill / Web Developer
>
> BAE Systems
>
> Enterprise Shared Services
>
> ES Eng Tools
>
> 1098 Clark St
>
> Bldg. 46, Fl 2, Grid D44
>
> Endicott, NY 13760
>
> Work: 607.770.2349, Mobile: 607.221.1421 Fax: 607.770.3594
>
> *From:*Jess Holle [
> *Subject:* [solutions] - RE: Java 8 Client Supprt
>
> Java 8 client support is being pursued for 10.2 M030.
>
> This may well also need to be provided for 10.2 M020/M022 and 10.1
> M050.
>
> It seems doubtful that it would reach 10.1 M040, however -- as the
> testing time/effort (and potentially patching) required to support
> a new platform version is usually only applied to the latest
> available MOR. [There are, of course, lots of fixes in M050 as
> well that one should have...]
>
>