Support/Osx
Supporting Live Connect in non-Safari browsers
"2004 Nov 24. (posted by Timothy Driscoll)"
(2005 Dec 20: See note about Flock browser below)
The 
Jmol.js file included with Jmol 10pre19 denies access to browsers that lack certain aspects of HTML and Javascript. This includes Live Connect support which, unfortunately, is not available in OSX browsers other than Safari.
Mozilla browsers on OSX (including Firefox) use their own JVM - which does not support Live Connect. they need to use the Apple JVM instead, in order to have a functioning Live Connect and pass the browser check in Jmol.js.
Fortunately, there is a way to tell non-Safari browsers to use the Apple JVM. I have tested it in Mozilla and Firefox, and it works (OSX 10.3.6). Here are the configuration details:
- Launch Mozilla and visit http://waterontheweb.org/data/java/trouble.html to verify your Java version. This page contains a small applet that reports the JVM details. it will probably say something like version 1.3.1.
- Go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/javaplugin/ and click the Download link. Choose
JavaEmbeddingPlugin0.8.7.zip, and select a mirror site. When the package is finished downloading, unzip it and open the folder. - Open the Binaries folder therein to see two files: JavaEmbeddingPlugin.bundle and MRJPlugin.plugin.
- Copy these two files to /Library/Internet Plugins.
- Launch Mozilla again. It should now be using the Apple JVM. To verify, go back to the url in step 1. it should report something like this:
| OS | Mac OS X |
| Java vendor | Apple Computer, Inc. |
| Java version | 1.4.2_05 |
- you can test Jmol here http://jmol.sourceforge.net/demo/.
A Mozilla Variant That Works
I started using the Flock browser a few weeks ago; it's derived from Firefox and has some interesting blogging and community-bookmark features that aren't germane here. But imagine my surprise when I happened to point my Mac Flock browser at our Jmol-enabled site and saw the molecules displaying properly! Some invisibly-updated Java bugfix? Nope, Firefox itself is still broken. But Flock 0.4.10 works, on OS 10.4.3.
2006 Update: Problems with Mozilla Browsers long fixed
The problems described above were fixed some time ago. 2006 versions of Firefox support LiveConnect with Mac OS X 10.3.9 and 10.4.x and work just as well as Safari with Jmol.js.
--Corriecas 16:40, 31 December 2006 (CET)
