JavaWebStart™ is a launcher whih allows users to start Java™ applications by a single click on a website. To sum-up quickly, the user's browser downloads a jnlp file on a website. This file contains a technical description of the application to be started. JavaWebStart™ (which should be associated to this kind of file) starts by reading this file. It starts a GUI to make the user follow the starting process. Then, it downloads the necessary files, validates the numeric signature, asks the user to confirm the application execution and ... starts the application.

JavaWebStart™ allows the user to restart easily a previously started application. If the user restarts an application, previously downloaded files are used. Needed updates are performed automatically. The user can consult the list of known applications with the JavaWebStart™ Cache Application Viewer.

JavaWebStart™ is a product of Sun Microsystems. It's included into the Java Runtime Environment. Visit the product homepage http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/

The JavaWebStart™ deployment of FreeCast allows to provide a turnkey solution for the end-users (your listeners):

You just need to make available a small xml file (see in the section called “Stream description file”) on your website, include a link to the FreeCast start page (see in the section called “Start page”). You won't consume bandwith because the needed files are downloaded from the http://download.freecast.org.