On Fri, 2005-02-18 at 16:57 -0600, Vic wrote: > Digester reads an XML file, and JNLP/WebStart classloader won't let you > read files without signing all the jars.
Yes, that sounds reasonable to me; applications should be sandboxed. Applications that require access outside the sandbox (including applications that can read arbitrary files off the local disk) should be signed and require the user to confirm that they understand these are not sandboxed apps. > I chose not to use commons-chains(it uses digester) on the Swing side > becuase of this. > > Siging the jars leads to this 4 year old bug: > http://forums.java.net/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=315&tstart=0 Yes, I see this can be confusing to users. Ordinary applications don't have the concept of a "sandbox", nor of signed code. Users have got into the habit of just trusting any old code (hence the wave of trojans, viruses, etc). But suddenly encountering a java app that asks them whether they want to grant access to their machines (when they do this implicitly whenever they install a non-java app) could well confuse them. A shame such users can't just be educated (with a large stick if necessary). I'm not convinced that your proposal (essentially dumbing down JNLP to the poor standard of all other software) is entirely satisfactory, but I agree there is a real problem that needs to be addressed somehow. On the other hand, given that sandbox-able apps are actually 0.01% of all apps, it does seem a shame that this extra step is needed for the vast majority of cases... Anyway, back to Digester. It seems to me that the problem you are describing will apply to any java code at all that reads external files (ie wants access beyond the sandbox). Your email was not a warning about Digester+JNLP, but in fact a recommendation to avoid JNLP completely, in order to avoid user confusion over the "accept signed application" dialog, yes? Regards, Simon --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
