Java Applets in Sun Identity Manager (Part 2: Work-Arounds)

As I mentioned in my previous post, the Java applets in Identity Manager can be somewhat of a pain to deal with.  As you may have guess, I detest the applets in Sun Identity Manager.  Whenever I can I work around them.

MultiSelect

By far the most common applet that any user, end-user or manager/administrator, will run into is the multiselect applet.  The simplest way to to get rid of the applet yet retain the same functionality of the multiselect UI component is to add a “noApplet” property to the field.  This turns the multiselect into a Javascript based HTML component.

<Field>
    <Display class="MultiSelect">
        <Property name="noApplet" value="true"/>
        ... other properties
    </Display>
</Field>

I haven’t yet found a global setting for the noApplet parameter. (If you know of one let me know. Hopefully, I’ve just overlooked it in the documentation.) That means for each and every multiselect you come across you’ll have to edit the form associated with the page the multiselect is part of.

Personally, I’ve only edited the multiselects that are user facing to end users and managers.  Identity Manager administrators (those people who maintain the IDM system itself) will have to live with the Java applets.

Workflow Status Applets

The next most common applet you’ll run across is the workflow status applet.  That’s the applet that displays a graphical layout of the workflow status in the results window.

To remove that applet you’ll need to edit the individual result JSP files.  Within the JSP the form displayed to the user is just a standard Java object.  It’s usually instantiated like any new java object.  The key to hiding the workflow status applets is to set a flag within the form’s backing Java object.

form.setSuppressReports(true);

That will hide the applet altogether.

Report Status Notifications

There’s no real way to hide the report status notification applet aside from actually removing the applet jar file altogether.  Barring that, you can run a report and then select the Server Tasks tab followed by All Tasks and find the report task.  Once the task has finished executing it will contain the details of the report.

Report Graphs

There’s no way around this one.  If the applet for the report graph mis-behaves in your browser then the best you can do is grab the raw data from the report and throw it into Excel or some other spreadsheet.

Capabilities User Interface Tool

If the capabilities tool mis-behaves then the only real way to work-around managing capabilities is to directly edit the Admin Group objects.  You can view and edit them using the debug interface (http://yourserver:8080/idm/debug) or by exporting the object from the repository and editing the XML data directly.

With the above work-arounds you should be able to disable the Java applets altogether but you’ll suffer reduced functionality at the “expense” of browser stability and an easier time supporting the end-user client system requirements.