The Sun Java Plug-in is required to run Java applets on recent version of Netscape and all versions of Mozilla. Optionally, it also works with Internet Explorer to provided enhanced Java support (for example, enhanced GUI through Swing).

This plug in is available for free download from Sun. Select the most recent non-beta version, and download the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Double click on the installation file, and follow the prompts to install the plug-in.

The 'Browser' tab of the 'Java Plug-In' control panel can be used to enable or disable the plug-in for each browser. This can be used to toggle between the Microsoft and Sun Java Virtual Machine when running Java applets in Internet Explorer.

Due to legal differences between Microsoft and Sun, some versions of Windows XP do not come with the Microsoft Java VM built-in. (Pre-SP1 does not have java, SP1 before February 2003 comes with JVM build 3805, and SP1A after February 2003 does not have Java.) You can determine the presence and version of the Microsoft Java VM by opening a Command Prompt session and typing 'jview', which will either report the current version of java or not be recognized if Java is not present.

Microsoft no longer offers the Microsoft Java VM from their website. However, you can do an Internet search for "msjavax86.exe", download it from elsewhere, and install it.

Once a version of the Microsoft Java VM has been installed, then Windows Update will permit it to be updated to the latest version (which was build 3809 as of March 2003).

Java 1.4.2 (available from Apple as a System Update) is required to enable LiveConnect on OS X 10.3. A small plug-in is also required to enable LiveConnect on these browsers. This plug-in can be obtained from SourceForge.net. To install the Java Embedding Plugin (JavaEmbeddingPlugin.bundle) and the MRJ Plugin JEP (MRJPlugin.plugin), drag them to the /Library/Internet Plug-Ins folder. Detailed information can be found from the plug-in project website.

At the present time, WebMO will ONLY work with the browser versions listed above on OS X 10.1 and 10.2. More recent versions of Mozilla (ex. Mozilla 1.4) currently do not work due to the use of a different Java engine that does not support LiveConnect on older versions of OS X. WebMO with Nescape or Mozilla requires the installation of a small plug-in so to enable LiveConnect JavaScript to Java communication. Download and uncompress the plug-in. Open up a terminal, and execute the following commands,

% cd download_dir/MRJPlugin
% sudo ./install_plugin.sh

This Sun JRE is available for free download from Sun. Select the most recent non-beta version, and download the Linux RPM in self-extracting file version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Install the JRE,

% chmod a+x j2sdk-1_4_xxx-linux-i586-rpm.bin
% ./j2sdk-1_4_xxx-linux-i586-rpm.bin (agree to license)
% su
# rpm -Uhv j2sdk-1_4_xxx-fcs-linux-i586.rpm

The JRE needs to be enabled as a Mozilla or Netscape plugin by creating a symbolic link to a plugin library of the JRE. This library is located at

/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.xxx/jre/plugin/i386/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji.so
or
/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.xxx/jre/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so

depending on which version of gcc your browser was compiled with. Generally, for newer versions of the browser, try the ns610-gcc32 version first. If that fails, try the ns610 version.

Create a link to this plugin library file in the Mozilla/Netscape plugin directory. This directory is most likely /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/,

# ln -s /usr/java/j2sdk1.4.xxx/jre/plugin/i386/ns610(-gcc32)/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/