Symbian
Symbian OS Library

SYMBIAN OS V9.3

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JAR initiated installation process overview

This page describes the overall process of how a MIDlet or MIDlet suite is installed onto a Symbian OS device when a JAR is supplied.

The Installer is initiated by the user selecting the JAR file. This may happen by the user clicking on the JAR in the web or WAP browser, or on an email attachment or clicking on a JAR file supplied to the phone using some other transfer protocol, e.g. via IR, Bluetooth etc. In any case the Symbian OS Recogniser ensures that the Installer is started when presented with a JAR file. Once launched the Installer extracts the manifest from the JAR. The manifest contains the information needed for Installation. During installation the Installer:

  1. Examines the MicroEdition-Configuration and MicroEdition-Profile attributes, if they are present. The versions required by the suite are compared with the versions supported, and if unsuitable the user is notified and the Installer does not proceed.

  2. Displays details of the software to the user, requesting confirmation that the installation should continue. Details include the Name, the Vendor, and the Version of the MIDlet and a description if one has been provided. Details also include the list of all MIDlets present in the suite.

  3. Compares the MIDlet-Name, MIDlet-Version, and MIDlet-Vendor with the corresponding attributes of all the MIDlet suites installed on the phone. If the MIDlet-Name and MIDlet-Vendor are the same as a suite already installed, then the user is prompted whether to overwrite the existing version.

  4. Gives the user choice of drive to install the MIDlet and the option to proceed with, or cancel, the installation. The MIDlet-Jar-Size and MIDlet-Data-Size attributes are used to display information to the user on the required amount of disk space.

  5. Copies JAR(s) to \Private\102033E6\MIDlets\<UID>\, where 102033E6 is a private directory named after the UID of the JVM and UID is a unique identifier provided at installation.

  6. Removes the old version of the JAR(s), if this has been an upgrade.

  7. Generates the files that are necessary to allow the MIDlet(s) to appear as standard Symbian OS applications. These files allow the user to launch the MIDlet. See Files for presenting and running MIDlets.

This completes the MIDlet installation process.

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