2 ways to make your Java programs accessible to the non-Java world

After you have developed an application in Java you want to make it accessible to as many potential users as possible. The Java ecosystem is pretty big but there are still 2 very large groups out there who will not be using it – non-technical users and non-Java developers. So how can you make your Java application accessible to them?

1. Non-technical users

This group are not interested in whether your program is written in Java, Ruby, C or any other language. The difference is meaningless to them. They will only be able to make use of it if you can offer them a non-technical way to utilise the application. The obvious way is the Internet. The Glassfish application server offers a fantastic way to provide a simple web page with which they can use to interact and control your Java program.

Glassfish itself provides all the infrastructure and the secure, magic door. It is written in Java, actively developed and has a fantastic community. Visit the glassfish website or follow Arun Guptas  twitter feed for lots of useful links.

Glassfish allows you to write some simple linking code so that the web page can become the input and output for your page. We have used it to provide a simple GUI frontend to our PDF to HTML5 and SVG converter at http://glassfish.idrsolutions.com .

2. Non-Java developers

There are lots of developers using something other than Java for a whole variety of reasons. You can make your software available to all of them by turning your Java program into a web service. Using a simple XML based web communications system any program (regardless of what language it is written in) can communicate with your Java program. This is the idea behind our new PDF cloud converter. Click here for the first blog article explaining how to connect.

So are you making your Java application available to the whole world or limiting it to the Java ecosystem? Do you have an tips on sharing it?

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Mark Stephens

Mark Stephens has been working with Java and PDF since 1999 and has diversified into HTML5, SVG and JavaFX. He also enjoys speaking at conferences and has been a Speaker at user groups, Business of Software, Seybold and JavaOne conferences. He has a very dry sense of humor and an MA in Medieval History for which he has not yet found a practical use.

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