Determine OpenWebstart version from launched app

[mredeker]

All,

is it possible to determine the OpenWebstart version from the Java program which is launched by OpenWebstart?
We can see that there are a few environment variable which start with "ows." but I can't see any that show the OpenWebstart version.

Thanks,
-Marcus

[Janak Mulani]

The version of OWS is logged in the stage 1 log file.

Code: Select all

[ITW-CORE][2025-10-29 22:18:31.614 IST][INFO ][com.openwebstart.launcher.PhaseTwoWebStartLauncher] Starting OpenWebStart 1.12.0

Using the following code:

Code: Select all

Install4JUtils.applicationVersion().ifPresent(v -> LOG.info("Starting OpenWebStart {}", v));

You could use the same code in your Java program but then to compile it you will need to have openwebstart.jar on the classpath,

May I ask, why do you need this feature?

[mredeker]

From your snippet, how das Install4JUtils know to look into the OpenWebstart stage1 log?
Client machines could have multiple applications installed with Install4J, no?

We have some clients which still use an older Version of OpenWebstart (prior 1.9.1) which had issues with JDK21.
Next year we will upgarde our application to Java21 and this way we would be able to contact the clients who still have an OpenWebstart version that had issues with our application and Java21.

[Janak Mulani]

>
From your snippet, how das Install4JUtils know to look into the OpenWebstart stage1 log?
Client machines could have multiple applications installed with Install4J, no?
>

Install4JUtils is a class from OpenWebStart which uses the API provided by I4J runtime which is bundled in openwebstar.jar.

Can you not advise your clients to upgrade to the latest OWS version? Or enable update check using the itw-settings application that is bundled with OWS? https://openwebstart.com/docs/OWSGuide.html#_updates

[mredeker]

Thanks for the info.
We told our clients already for more than a year to update to the latest OpenWebstart and use update checks.
Unfortunately they don't listen to us and even some still use Oracle JDK8 and Oracle webstart