Can JNLP be used to start a browser, in an application that's not Java Web Start?

[Peter Chase]

My Java application has a built-in Web server. Web clients can connect to the application, using a Web browser, to see the application's GUI.
However, users currently have to start a browser themselves and type in an appropriate URL, even when sitting at the same machine as the application. I would like the application to fire up a browser on its local machine and open the URL of the main page of the GUI.
It seems as if JNLP provides facilities to do this, but I have not had success in using it.
If I put the JNLP Jars on the class path (and the javaws directory in java.library.path), I can call ServiceManager.lookup(), to try to get a BasicService, which would provide the showDocument() method. However, a BasicService is not available. The lookup() method throws UnavailableServiceException with a message of "uninitialized".
Is what I am doing doomed or is there something I could change to make it work?
I append some code.

  /** Get JNLP basic service object, if available. Uses reflection, to avoid
   *  compilation failures on platforms where JNLP is not implemented.
   * @return basic service object, or null if unavailable
   */
  public static Object getBasicServiceObject()
  {
    synchronized(JNLP_LOCK)
    {
      if (null == __basicServiceObject && ! __failedJNLP)
      {
        // Set failure flag. If lookup succeeds, will be reset.
        __failedJNLP = true;
        Throwable unex = null; // unexpected exception (bug) to report
        Throwable ex = null;   // expected/handled exception to report
        try
        {
          Class serviceManagerClass
            = StandardUtils.loadClass("javax.jnlp.ServiceManager");
          Method lookupMethod
            = serviceManagerClass.getMethod("lookup", new Class[] { String.class });
          __basicServiceObject
            = lookupMethod.invoke(null, new Object[] { "javax.jnlp.BasicService" });
          // Success
          __failedJNLP = false;
        }
        catch (InvocationTargetException ite) 
        {
          Throwable cause = ite.getTargetException();
          if (cause instanceof RuntimeException)
            throw (RuntimeException) cause;
          if (cause instanceof Error)
            throw (Error) cause;
          ex = cause;
        }
        catch (ClassNotFoundException cnfe) { ex   = cnfe; }
        catch (NoSuchMethodException nsm)   { unex = nsm; }
        catch (IllegalAccessException iae)  { unex = iae; }
        finally
        {
          if (null != unex)
            throw HQNlogger.logFailError(LOG_SUBJECT, HQNlogger.HQN_ALARM_LEVEL_ERROR,
                                         "Unexpected: " + unex);
          if (null != ex)
            HQNlogger.log(LOG_SUBJECT, HQNlogger.HQN_ALARM_LEVEL_INFO_VERBOSE,
                          "JNLP unavailable: " + ex);
        }
      }
      return __basicServiceObject;
    }
  }

[Brian Pipa]

http://browserlauncher.sourceforge.net/