[LON-CAPA-admin] Java Applet fails because of permissions

[Stuart Raeburn]

Hi,

> ich have another question on LON-CAPA 2.11.0 regarding the formula
> editor the user gets when clicking on the small pencil-icon right to
> the answer-box where a formula is required as correct answer:
>
> I got a request, the editor does not start correctly.

I have updated the manifest for DragMath.jar file to include  
attributes for: Application-Name, Permissions, and Codebase.

Versions of the JRE which require these attributes to have been set  
should not report the errors you report after your LON-CAPA server has  
been updated with the new DragMath.jar file.

The updated DragMath.jar will be included in 2.11.1, but if you wish  
to update 2.11.0 now, see the instructions in comment#2 of bug 6685:

http://bugs.loncapa.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6685#c2

Notes:
1. Users may also need to clear their local Java plug-in caches after  
the update. See: https://www.java.com/en/download/help/plugin_cache.xml

2. The jar file has been signed with a code-signing certificate issued  
to me at Michigan State University by InCommon (  
https://www.incommon.org/ ).  As the expiration date for that  
certificate is December 3rd, I will be releasing yet another updated  
DragMath.jar soon, once a new certificate has been issued to me.

> As the cause of the error for me seems to be the missing "permissions"
> attribute in MainApplet.java which I associate is part of and
> maintained by LON-CAPA (is it?),

MainApplet.java is part of DragMath (see:  
https://github.com/maths/dragmath ), which is a third party equation  
editor, which was first integrated into  LON-CAPA in 2.7 (2008).  The  
plan in a future LON-CAPA release is to replace the use of DragMath --  
at least in the student interface for modern browsers -- with  
LON-CAPA's own javascript math editor created by Damien Guillaume.

Feel free to reopen bug 6685 if you encounter additional permissions  
issues with DragMath.


Thanks,

Stuart Raeburn
LON-CAPA Academic Consortium


Quoting Martin Diedrich <diedrich at rz.tu-clausthal.de>:

> Hello all together again,
>
> ich have another question on LON-CAPA 2.11.0 regarding the formula
> editor the user gets when clicking on the small pencil-icon right to
> the answer-box where a formula is required as correct answer:
>
> I got a request, the editor does not start correctly. I verified that
> by klicking the icon described above and got a "blocked by security
> settings"-Error in Java (using actual Firefox on patched Windows,
> actual Java RE). The error ist described on
> https://www.java.com/en/download/help/java_blocked.xml and the third
> characteristic occurs ("Missing required Permissions manifest attribute
> in main jar"). The described workarounds (see my link) are functional
> but not the favored solution as not all users realize what they are
> doing.
>
> As the cause of the error for me seems to be the missing "permissions"
> attribute in MainApplet.java which I associate is part of and
> maintained by LON-CAPA (is it?), I hereby communicate the problem
> hoping for a solution in a coming relase - is this possible? If you
> need more information on that issue, just send me an email :)!
>
> Greetins from germany
> Martin Diedrich
> -- 
> Dipl.-Wirt.-Inf. Martin Diedrich   E-Mail: diedrich at rz.tu-clausthal.de
> Rechenzentrum TU Clausthal         Telefon: +49 5323 72 2522
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