Oracle Jinitiator and Internet Explorer 8

Hi all,

I have been working on this issue for quite a while now and I have managed to use similar procedure (superseding jvm) however in an much complex enterprise environment. There are some small problems that you will still need to use a simple workaround however it is only affecting few models of machines.

If it is ok with the author of this blog, may I post my similar but thorough implementation of the fix??

Cheers

Ilias

Subject: JInitiator, Oracle Business Suite 10g
Tested OS: Win 7 Enterprise 32 & 64 bit
JVM dll: ——————————–
Author: Ilias E Mullalli (ilias.e.m.d@gmail.com)
Section: IT
Date Created: 30-Aug-11

Most of the large enterprises are required to run Line of Oracle Web-applications e.g. Oracle E-Business Suite, which depends on the old JInitiator to access forms within the browser. Due to the cost of upgrading their applications, they are still using Windows XP platform and Internet Explorer 6.

In our company, we decided to migrate some of our machines to Windows 7 Enterprise. By doing so, we realised that after launching the IE8 and navigating to our application, it crashed, which was business critical issue.The reason of the crash as most of you will already know was the jvm.dll.

I am very lucky as I understand very well how Java Platforms run. I got a different version of jvm.dll from Sun to see whether it would correspond as expected, and actually did.

However, it wasn’t as perfect as you would have expected.
I did some research on the net and come across quite few websites but the main two were:
http://www.steelbytes.net/oracle-jinitiator-and-internet-explorer-8

http://notsomany.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/jinitiator-working-on-windows-7/

I collated a mixture of feedback after users had replaced the jvm.dll and some of the the comments are listed below.

“It still keeps crashing”
“The screen keeps repainting”
“IE8 rendering keeps flickering”
“The theme changes to basic mode”
“I get ora-xx error”
“Jvm doesn’t load”
“Normal users cannot use it unless the belong in the admin group” and so on.

Some other solutions that were tried are listed below. (It could possibly help other enterprises, so they know what else is out there)

1. Citrix solution to deliver application to end user. Not the most efficient way as it involves additional logins for the user plus the annual cost (£80K). Also, streaming application is not the most preferred way in a business environment.

2. Browsium – UniBrows

It is a very clever web-extension and local application that allows you to run IE6 within IE8 platform side by side. The problems with the application were quite a few. Some of them were:

a) When tabbing application just crashes
b) When Oracle Business Suite generates unique reports it doesn’t understand the command, therefore nothing to view
c) Lots of headers scripting which could invalidate data input
d)DEP/NX is only disabled when Browsium extension is used, but still it could potentially probe in a security vulnerability.

3. Med-V
A decent clever application, but not very user friendly as the amount of time it took to launch the IE was too slow, especially for a corporate environment.

I must admit, I have been working on this issue days and nights for the last 2 months and was a very hard task; however I am glad that I did as I managed to come to an end. 🙂

IMPORTANT

PLEASE FOLLOW STEP BY STEP THE INSTRUCTIONS.

If you are using a 64-bit OS make sure to lunch IE8 32-bit.

1. Run IE8 as an administrator to do that press and hold Ctrl+Shift and click IE8 shortcut at the taskbar and click yes on the UAC window.

2. Go to tools->Pop-up Blocker->Pop-up blocker settings and add “*.YourWebsiteOfTheApplication.xx” and close.

3. Go to Tools->Internet Options->Security->Custom Level->Disable XSS Filters (3 from the bottom) and press ok and then yes.

4. Go to Trusted Sites (green tick), click on sites, and add http(s):/Yourwebsite.xx

5. Next go to Advanced Tab and do the following:
a) Untick Enable Third-party browser extensions
b) Tick Reuse windows for launching shortcuts
c) Untick Enable memory protection to help mitigate online attacks

Click OK, and close the browser.

TIP: Please note that the above settings are only modified to ensure successful installation of the JInitiator. We will change this setting to default once we are done, therefore there is not worry about any security issues.

Below we have two options, depending how you JInitiator is installed.

6. OPTION 1
If the installation of the JInitiator takes place when you type the URL in the address bar do the following

i) Open IE 8 and go to the site
ii) Click on the yellow prompt toolbar, Install this addon for all users on this computer and click ok.
iii) When UAC prompt click yes and wait few seconds until it loads the setup

6. OPTION 2
If you have a copy of the JInitiator application

i) Right click the application, go to properties, compatibility, then select “Run this program in compatibility mode for” and select “Windows XP service pack 3) and ok.
ii) When UAC prompt click yes and wait few seconds until it loads the setup

7. Follow setup wizard, and just accept default by clicking next.

8. A windows will pop-up saying that the Installation is complete just press ok.

9. If the Jinitiator screen hangs and is saying Installing Oracle Jinitiator version xxx just close the window. When asked, click Exit Setup. (Ignore this option if the window installation window closes)

11. If you were installing it through IE8 close the Internet explorer and click OK, otherwise go to the next step.

12. I am using same version (apart from update) as Paolo, so follow the steps described above to replace the jvm.dll.

13. Run IE8 as an administrator to do that press and hold Ctrl+Shift and click IE8 shortcut at the taskbar and click yes on the UAC window.

14. Go to Tools->Internet Options->Advanced and either click on Reset to reset the settings, or manually put them back as they were. Re-start IE8.

15. Go and access your web application. If everything works ok then you can skip the steps below.

16. If the navigation through the forms is not working, or the rendering on the page is very bad do the following:
a) Close IE8, go to control panel, change the category to small icons, double click JInitiator Control.
b) In the basic tab, In the Parameter box type the following:
-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true, then apply and close the window.

17. You may need to restart the PC before you see the difference.

18. Go to the URL and see the change… Voilà…Here we go, done.

If the windows theme keeps change to basic mode and you are annoyed with this do the following:

a. Run cmd with admin privileges (you can search for cmd and hold cltr+shift and press enter)
b.) Type “sc config uxsms start= disabled” without the quotes and press enter. This disables the services for the pretty effects that you get.

All commands that can be used for dwm are:
 Stop Service net stop uxsms
 Start Service net start uxsms
 Disable Service sc config uxsms start= disabled
 Enable Service sc config uxsms start= auto

Depending the version of JInitiator that your application supports, you may need a different copy of the jvm.dll. If the above one doesn’t work then you may need to try another version.

If for any reasons something doesn’t work or you have any queries, please let me know.

I would like to thank Paolo, the author of the thread, and Sai, Database Admin) for letting me post this solution in this existing thread.

Many Thanks

ilias

Hi all,

I am very glad that the solution worked for you. It would be very benifitial if you can provide some feedback on the day to day use. It will help individulas and other major corporation prior to migrating.

For instance:

Have you been using it on an individual or corporate level?
How long have been using it for?
Have any debbuging errors or API stack has occured at any time?

I will be more than happy to check any errors that may have occured and try to anylise them and post the any results/suggestions here.

Many Thanks

ilias

You are more than welcome. Please feel free to provide any feeback and please do recommend this blog to other individuals or businesses.

Many Thanks

ilias

Hi Michele,

I haven’t tested the solution on IE9 as most of the businesses will initially migrate to IE8 for quite a long term.

May I ask why do you need to use IE9? IE8 is supported by Windows 7 and the workaround works as a treat.
As a suggestion, if you want to try and apply the workaround from scratch on IE9, try booting your PC in safe mode and see whether that allows you to make the changes in the control p-anel, Jinitiator control and let us know how you get on.
If you are strugling please send me an email and when I have some spare time I will do the testing.

Thanks

ilias