QuickTime for Java: A Developer's Notebook

Preflighting a QTJ Installation

Given the hassle of setting up your own box with a custom QuickTime installation, the idea of having to walk your Windows users through such a process is probably unappealing. Installing the various QuickTime .dlls and such by yourself is not an alternative, because you promised not to redistribute QuickTime when you clicked “agree” on that license.

Tip

You know the license I mean—it’s the one you didn’t read! That’s OK, I didn’t read it either.

Fortunately, QuickTime 6 offers a “preflighting” feature that allows you to create an XML file that describes what QuickTime features you need, open the file with QuickTime, and have QuickTime download and install your features if they’re absent.

How do I do that?

In your favorite text editor, create an XML file, as seen in Example 1-2.

Example 1-2. Preflighting to install QTJ

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?quicktime type="application/x-qtpreflight"?>
<qtpreflight>
  <component type="null" subtype="qtj "/>
</qtpreflight>

Save this file with a .mov extension to associate it with QuickTime.

Have QuickTime open this file in whatever means is appropriate for your application—embed it in a web page, have an installer script open it with QuickTimePlayer.exe, etc. When you do, QuickTime will check to see if QuickTime for Java has been installed; if QTJ hasn’t been installed, this will give the user a chance to download and install it, as seen in Figure 1-5.

Figure 1-5. Installing QuickTime for Java via preflighting

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