The Wrapper supports the Java Viewer on all platforms supported by Autodesk, including Macs. This includes both Classic Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. However, the current MapGuide Java Viewer version 6.5 only works with Mac OS X. Older MapGuide versions worked with Classic Mac OS 8 and 9.
While the Wrapper defaults to the Java Viewer for any browser that isn't Internet Explorer or Netscape 4.x, the Wrapper does nothing to help install the Java Viewer. Therefore, the first time you use the Java Viewer in a session, the browser always takes awhile to download the Viewer applet. It is also possible to manually install the Java Viewer so that it doesn't have to use a cached version or download it with each session. Providing support for detecting Java Viewer installation status and recommending its installation is on our "to-do" list for the Wrapper, but may never happen. We don't even know if it's technically possible.
When the platform doesn't support the Active X control or the plug-in MapGuide Viewer, the Wrapper defaults to the Java Viewer which is then downloaded on the fly. While the Java Viewer works in the Wrapper, the Wrapper does not detect whether the Java Viewer has been manually installed and does not assist with Java Viewer installation as it does for the Active X control and the plug-in. If the user has manually installed the Java Viewer, then the Wrapper and web browser use it. Otherwise, the Java Viewer is downloaded over the net (or retrieved from the user's cache by the web browser) each time the map is first used in a session.
We're not sure about the need to install "Java" support on Windows to get the MapGuide Viewer Java Edition to work. We assume it's generally there by default with recent versions of Windows.
Also, note that the Wrapper tries to use the Java Viewer on any platform that doesn't support Active X control or plug-in. Therefore, the Java Viewer will work (or mostly work) on some platforms (browsers) that aren't officially supported by Autodesk. See Limitations for more on checking for unsupported platforms.
You can have some fun adding the "use" parameter to the Wrapper map URLs on your site or ours. This parameter can be used to force the Wrapper to use the Java Viewer, ActiveX control, or the plugin -- of course with no guarantee it will work on the platform you use it on. The values are:
&use=java &use=activex &use=plugin
The interesting one is to add &use=java with Internet Explorer and you will see the rarely seen case of the Java Viewer with Internet Explorer. This is also helpful to test the Java Viewer when you don't have a web browser that would typically use the Java Viewer.
If you expect to have Java Viewer users, be aware of the Java Viewer differences as documented by Autodesk -- especially the Printing and Copying sections. Also, the Java Viewer does not dynamically resize the map as the user changes the window size of a displayed map, unlike the ActiveX control and the plugin.
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