I'm sorry you have found this so frustrating.
I have a few questions I hope you will answer to help clarify a few things and provide some important details.
I assume because you are posting in this forum that you have developed a Java EE application and are deploying it to GlassFish and your frustration comes from the built-in support for launching app clients using Java Web Start. I ask because you didn't refer to GlassFish in your post. (You did mention the number of JARs.) I just want to make sure you are not talking about a non-Java EE application launched using Java Web Start from a standard web container (either the web container that is part of GlassFish or some other web server).
Assuming you are using GlassFish and the built-in Java Web Start support, what build of GlassFish are you using? Have you had the same problems - or the absence of problems - with other builds?
What release of Java are you using? Have you had the same problems - or the absence of problems - with other releases?
The issue with the large number and large size of JARs that are needed is well-known and much-discussed. If you've read some of the other posts related to the Java Web Start support in GlassFish in this forum you know it's something we're very eager to address in the next major release of GlassFish. We know this is a hardship, and we wish we could have done something about it already. It just was not feasible with the time and resources we had. I know that doesn't help you now.
Also, I also hope you know that this large download is needed only for the first app client launch performed from the server. Future launches of any app client - the same one or different ones - from the server do not repeat the big download.
You referred to manual configuration that is required. Please be more specific...what configuration are you referring to?
The slow performance you mentioned... Is this happening after the download has completed before you see the initial GUI display from your app client? In response to user actions in the GUI? At some other time?
Is there any logging output in the server's server.log file that might indicate any problem? This might help identify the cause of the hang. Did you use the jstack utility to dump the thread stacks?
- Tim
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