[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Useful Java Applets ] [ Useful HTML Pages ] [ Downloading the Java Tools ] [ Spreadsheets ]

While the Java applets shown in these pages are useful, they have one significant drawback:

• Because of standard Java applet security restrictions imposed by the browser and Java Plug-in, it appears that it is not possible to cut and paste from/to these applets.

For some uses, this doesn't matter terribly much, but when you're trying to enter a fairly large plaintext or ciphertext into some of these applets, it's much too painful to have to manually type it.

So, here is how to download the Java code, so that you can run then as Java applications, and avoid the restrictions imposed on applets.

All the Java code is stored in a single executable file, Security.jar . The link to the left allows you to download this file to your own computer.

Note: You do not have to have install privileges on your machine in order to download and run this.  It will work as long as you download it to a directory to which you have access (on your P: drive on Rivier machines), and as long as you have a suitably recent Java environment on your machine.

In Internet Explorer, you should be able to simply click on that link to open it.  If you have an appropriate configuration on your machine, it should tell you that the file is an Executable jar file, and ask whether you wish to open it or save it.

• Choose Open if you wish to run it in place.  That means that you will have to go back to this web page whenever you wish to run the program.
• Choose Open if you wish to save the file on your machine so that you can run it whenever you wish.  Save it to a convenient (and appropriately named!) directory folder, and then you should be able to run it at any subsequent time.

In Internet Explorer, you can also choose to right-click on the above link, and then select the "Save Target as..." option to save the file on your machine.

If you have a recent Java Environment installed, your machine should be configured to run such a file (using the java.exe program -- otherwise known as your JVM -- in your Java environment) whenever you double-click it.

When you run this executable jar file, you should see the following:

and you can click on each of the buttons to bring up the corresponding tool.

In fact, you can bring up more than one of the tools at a time.

Troubleshooting

If you don't see the above when you try to execute the jar file, it's possible that you aren't configured to automatically invoke the appropriate JVM (java.exe) to run such an executable jar file.  In this case try doing the following (on a Windows system):

1. Ensure that you have a Java environment installed on your machine.  It can be either a Java Software Developers Kit (JSDK), or a Java Run-time Environment (JRE).  If you don't have one already installed, go grab one from http://java.sun.com/ .
2. Bring up a Windows Console window (also known as an MS-DOS window)
3. Try executing the following command:

   java -jar C:\security\Security.jar

   Here, I'm assuming that you placed your Security.jar file in a directory C:\security .  Replace that with where you really put it.

4. If that doesn't work, try executing the following command:

   set JAVA_HOME=C:\j2sdk1.4.2_04

   Here, I'm assuming that the Java environment you have installed is a Java SDK 1.4.2_04, and that it's located in the C:\j2sdk1.4.2_04 directory on your hard drive.  Replace that with the directory where your true Java environment is installed (the top level directory for that environment).

   Then execute the following command:

   %JAVA_HOME%\java.exe -jar C:\security\Security.jar

   (with appropriate substitution for the C:\security directory.)

5. If that doesn't work, it's time to ask me for help.