Hi, announcing dotFX

General Discussions
#1

Hi all. I am new to this forum. I wanted to announce myself and also the company I work for, dotFX Inc.

We are a Java software company based in the Silicon Valley Bay Area. We provide a a click-to-run framework for installing, managing and updating Java applications. A lot of threads I have read on this forum might appreciate a look at dotFX, so please excuse the advert :

http://www.dotfx.com/products.jsp

I am interested in learning more about Java gaming technology and getting involved.

Phil Straw
co-CTO dotFX.

#2

[quote]ClientFX is a plug-in that allows fx:// links to be clicked in a browser or click-to-run applications to be resident on your desktop
[/quote]
So the client needs to install your product first to be able to run mine? ??? Where’s the improvement? It makes the Java distribution problem worse, doesn’t it? Webstart and applets are not as nice as they could be, but they are installed if Java is installed, at least. For using your product the client requires Java and your plugin installed :-\

uh

[quote]and soon will support Linux
[/quote]
oh, and I need a special server application? Or can it be used with my L/WAMP?

Where’s the pricing information?

#3

I’m having a hard time seeing what advantages this has over regular Webstart. Perhaps you could enlighten us?

#4

This seems to be the only difference from the feature list. And I am not sure, if this really can be called an advantage :wink:

#5

Well, the dotFX platform gets around a bunch of things, some of which have been asked for, here at JGO, for some time now.

  • No more security popups
  • Background downloading of VM/JRE updates
  • Auto patching/version control of the JRE and the application
  • Ability to build a “channel” of games to the desktop
  • Run legacy applets as applications outside of the browser
  • Public/user perception of “smaller” download
  • Can have multiple versions of the VM available as applications need them

And I am sure there are more things that the DotFX guys can mention

#6

dotFX does not try and compete with Webstart really. In fact Webstart works great for what it does. If that solves your problem then you found the answer.

dotFX is about live distribution of code either at the client or at the server. Class by class and just in time. The side effect of this is making delivering an application a very slick experience, especially for large applications and other favorable cases. In that sense dotFX has some overlap but we are trying to do something different from Webstart.

We are trying to create a system for live distribution, maintenance, and add runtime properties to code in runtime. We based it on Java. Java has well known strengths but also some less well known that allows us to make this system transparent to software development. For example one of the strengths not talked about around Java is it’s consistency and it’s language and VM rigor (IMHO). Because of this and other factors we can for a default case just take straight Java code and not need an API to impart runtime properties and distribute runtime services and value.

Some runtime properties we impart are security services, an inbuilt PKI system and the ability to designate certain objects to run on the server without writing code or protocol to do client server communications (in this case you write your application as if it were just stand alone). We also have live class by class updating for your application from ServerFX as well as a live update system for JRE distribution and update (also class by class and as needed), and also for the dotFX framework. The update system is live and allows for forward and backward compatibility.

dotFX makes the base system available for free, both on the server and the client. We intend in the long term to make money on runtime services in software, as options extras for software developers.

The features in our upcoming release 1.2 (Q4 '08) are :
- Linux client (Linux server already shipping)
- Offline function
- Security privilege escalation system
- Install FX (stand alone live app install builder bundling dotFX)

Some more information for the technically thirsty can be found here :

http://update.dotfx.com/download/dist/docs/dotFX_User_Guide.pdf

Thanks
Phil.

#7

Good :D. What about Solaris and Mac?

#8

Could someone explain a bit more? Because these are clearly already in the standard JRE and webstart.

#9

Maybe they work this time :wink:

Cas :slight_smile:

#10

Yeah, JWS is nice, but the famous “it worked the second time” feedback is quite killing when you typically have only one shot with the casual visitor.

Back on topic:
The RMI-like framework is really impressive (Read the doc!)

#11

This looks very interesting. Could this be a solution to making Java applets more like a Flash application in terms of user accessibility? If the loading is more transparent and you can distract the user in the meantime, that would make a big difference.

#12

the client on windows has 25mb, thats more than twice of the jre installer… :o
(is the jre included?)

the first time i installed the dotfx client i got a “connection timeout, can not read version” (or something like that) popup when i closed the browser, now i get InvocationTargetExceptions for each example.

winxp 32, firefox3, ie

#13

First, dotFX doesn’t bundle an uninstaller…

Second, it display which classes and resources are being dynamically ‘fetched’, to the user…!

The RISK demo (on their site) grinds to a halt as the GUI keeps you notified about each and every javax.swing.* class (and their subclasses) that are being loaded. Every time you open a java.awt.Dialog, takes about 20 seconds. You basically expose all the innards of your program to the enduser (who doesn’t give a damn) about java.awt.geom.Arc.Float2D is being loaded (among a zillion other classes). The second time you open the same Dialog, it ‘fetches’ these resources all over again, as if it’s streaming them off of a server or something…

This is rediculous… Yet I hope this will be fixed, and turned into a slick product.

#14

The demos on the web site are basically open source apps we did not write. We probably look for other examples or work on the code to work better.

Each item in turn…

Uninstaller…we are about to launch an install builder. This will allow you to build installs and uninstalls for dotFX.

The spinner information box is there to show loading. There will be a version that allows this to be hidden or private labelled later.

The next version (1.2) allows classes to be downloaded up front, InstallFX allows a traditional install experience and incremental updates to individual classes as patched (ver 1.2), and it is possible with coding techniques to make the application load in a very attractive way.

I think we are moving in the direction you want us. We are implementing feature requests after 1.2 onward. A lot of what you need is in 1.2 which is weeks away.

Phil.