Launching external Java application tasks

The Desktop offers the ability to launch non-toolkit business functions (Java™ applications). To do this, it provides a class named ExternalTaskButton that controls this behavior. If you want to use your own ExternalTaskButton, you can extend from this class and define the new class in the configuration file.

There are two kind of external Java applications: visual applications and non-visual applications. Both these applications must extend CoordinatedEventSource, so that the task will be able to handle the events fired by the application.

For a visual application, the only other requirements are that it extend from the JComponent class, and that it implement the same behavior as a toolkit business function (for example, having a button in the TaskArea, a navigation area, and the ability to get focus).

For a non-visual application, a DesktopThread with the application will be launched, and a message will advise that an application has been launched. The only restriction is that the class must have a main method, which will be called from the Thread. Any kind of Java application can be launched.