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Bug 138227 - Late information on required JDK
Summary: Late information on required JDK
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: installer
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Code (show other bugs)
Version: 6.x
Hardware: All All
: P3 blocker (vote)
Assignee: dlipin
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2008-06-25 14:34 UTC by Ondrej Langr
Modified: 2008-09-01 15:38 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: DEFECT
Exception Reporter:


Attachments
Welcome and customize panels : sample (43.53 KB, image/png)
2008-08-28 16:13 UTC, dlipin
Details

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Description Ondrej Langr 2008-06-25 14:34:58 UTC
When JDK is not detected on users' computer and components requiring JDK are selected in the installation customizer,
the fact that JDK will be required is not provided immediately, but 2 screens later.

Correct solution would be to perform JDK detection upfront and inform the user right in the customizer panel (and also
in the panel where selected components are shown) that JDK will be needed and seems not to be present.
Comment 1 dlipin 2008-06-26 12:24:11 UTC
In fact, there is no guarantee that JDK will be found during installer initialization, we don`t search the entire 
system but only well-known and commonly used locations.
If user have it installed in some rarely used location then installer would not find it.
If we prevent from moving towards at Welcome/Customize panels then the user would not be able to select the JDK.

What problem are we solving by showing the message that "JDK seems not to be present" at the first panel?
Comment 2 Ondrej Langr 2008-07-01 12:42:50 UTC
By providing the info that JDK has not been detected at the first panel we are providing immediate feedback, allowing
the user to deal with the problem right away. We also make clear that JDK is not needed for all bundles, and allow the
user to select only those they do not need JDK for. 

Let's say a user who only wants to develop PHP apps downloads full bundle (I've seen people saying they always do that
thinking "what if I needed it one day", or it could be for evaluation purposes) and experiences JDK trouble in the
configuration screen. At this point s/he may give up trying netbeans out, for too many obstacles. But if the feedback
was provided in welcome/customizer panels, they could interactively disable the modules dependent on JDK. The challenge
here is to provide a message which will provide clear information and not confuse users who do have JDK, but will have
to locate it manually.

Anyway, these should be warning/information messages, not errors. They should not prevent the user from continuing (in
case they want to locate the JDK manually).
Comment 3 dlipin 2008-08-28 16:11:53 UTC
Ondrej,

I`m happy to say that I`ve got the fix to this issue.
The only unclear thing is the message: what message should we display (in both Customize and Welcome) panels in two 
different cases:
1) User selected some components (say, JavaSE or GlassFish V2) that require JDK but no compatible one found
2) User selected components that can work even on JRE but no compatible one (JRE or JDK) found

Please advise :) The shorter - the better :)
Comment 4 dlipin 2008-08-28 16:13:20 UTC
Created attachment 68543 [details]
Welcome and customize panels : sample
Comment 5 dlipin 2008-08-29 17:15:09 UTC
Committed the initial fix: http://hg.netbeans.org/main/rev/aa3dfd4896ed

Now the following messages are used:
No compatible JDK was found.
No compatible Java environment was found.
Comment 6 Quality Engineering 2008-08-30 05:37:00 UTC
Integrated into 'main-golden', available in build *200808300201* on http://bits.netbeans.org/dev/nightly/
Changeset: http://hg.netbeans.org/main/rev/aa3dfd4896ed
User: Dmitry Lipin <dlipin@netbeans.org>
Log: Issue #138227 Late information on required JDK (part 1)
Comment 7 Ondrej Langr 2008-09-01 14:57:07 UTC
Dmitry, I'm sorry for the delay, I was on vacation. The messages you suggested seem totally fine. Thanks.
Comment 8 dlipin 2008-09-01 15:38:26 UTC
Thanks! Marking as fixed then.