I now have a dilemma, and I figure this is the best place to ask. I have succeeded in getting the *Chrome Embedded Framework* to work correctly in my Writer add-on, both in Windows and on Linux.
In Linux however, if the Chrome browser hasn't already been installed, a number of system dependencies are required in order for the Chrome Embedded Framework to function properly inside of Java Swing. This means that in order to install the add-on in OpenOffice writer, these system dependencies must be met first. I've been working over how to go about doing this, probably the best path to take would be a shell script that takes care of setting up the environment correctly. However, in order to launch a shell script from Java at runtime, that attempts to install system dependencies, either I would have to create a prompt asking the user to type in their system password in order to allow the Java runtime to launch a process with *sudo apt-get install* , or I would have to ask the end user to go to the command line and launch the shell script themselves before using the Writer add-on. When creating a similar add-on for Microsoft Word, I was able to create an executable package installer which takes care of all system dependencies, and which requires elevated privileges in order to install. I'm not sure what the best approach here would be, because this can also define the philosophy behind the software that the add-on is being installed in. There's room to doubt whether asking a user for their password from within a Writer add-on is good practice, even if explaining why it is needed. Asking a user to go to the terminal and launch a shell script before installing or being able to fully use the add-on could be considered a bit daunting for some end users. Specifically the system dependencies that need to be met, at least as far as I could gather in my tests so far, are: sudo apt-get install gconf-service libasound2 libatk1.0-0 libatk-bridge2.0-0 libc6 libcairo2 libcups2 libdbus-1-3 libexpat1 libfontconfig1 libgcc1 libgconf-2-4 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 libglib2.0-0 libgbm-dev libgtk-3-0 libnspr4 libpango-1.0-0 libpangocairo-1.0-0 libstdc++6 libx11-6 libx11-xcb1 libxcb1 libxcomposite1 libxcursor1 libxcursor-dev libxdamage1 libxext6 libxfixes3 libxi6 libxrandr2 libxrender1 libxss1 libxtst6 ca-certificates fonts-liberation libappindicator1 libnss3 lsb-release xdg-utils Any suggestions on how to go about ensuring system dependencies are met, without introducing any dubious practices for add-ons, or daunting tasks for end users? And might I hint here again at the possibility, if the Chrome Embedded Framework were to be integrated into OpenOffice itself, then system dependencies would be taken care of upon installation of OpenOffice, and Java add-ons would be able to simply add the necessary jar files without worrying about system dependencies or environment variables or linking native libraries. Thoughts? -- John