Installing OneStone® Pebbles

OneStone Pebbles are Java Web Start programs
and will work on most machines running Windows Vista or above, Apple's OS X, Solaris
and most common Linux configurations.  Although Java Web Start programs are launched
by clicking on an html link on a web page, they don't run in the web browser.  Instead,
they run in their own window, like a typical desktop program. 

This isn't the security risk it might sound like - Web Start programs must be signed by their
author with a code-signing certificate derived from a trusted authority, recognized by the client machine. 
Failure to meet this requirement means an app will not be allowed to run on a machine with an up to date version of Java. 
If properly signed, the user will be presented with a dialog requesting permission for the application to run. 

Pebbles use two extensions to the Java language - JavaHelp and Java OpenGL.  JavaHelp is used to present each module's Help file,
and Java OpenGL (JOGL) is used to produce the 3D graphics.  These modules are common between each Pebble in the series, and will
be automatically downloaded the first time a Pebble is run on a client machine.  After that, depending on the client machine settings,
they will likely be cached and will only be downloaded again if an updated version is made available on our server.  The size of the extension
packages varies by OS, but the total size for each OS' 3.5MB. 

Pebbles themselves are designed to download themselves every time they are run. 
This ensures you always have the latest version on your systems and is not much
of a burden - Pebbles modules are typically less than 200 KB in size. 

System Requirements

There are two principal hardware requirements:

Monitor/video system must be set to a minimum of 16-bit color depth. 

Video board must support OpenGL 3D graphics. 

First-Time Installation

Assuming your hardware meets these requirements, follow these steps to install and
run a Pebble for the first time:

Install an up-to-date version of Java on your machine.  To get the
latest version for your machine, visit www.java.com. 

Visit the Pebble page of your choice and click the 'Launch...' link. The
link points to a file with a '.jnlp' extension, and some browsers may display a
dialog asking what to do with it.  As indicated below, the correct response is to
have the file opened as a Java Web Start application. 

Mac/Firefox JNLP Dialog

Download the Pebble.  This should happen without further intervention. 
You should see something like the dialogs below during the process.  The Pebble actually
downloads in several pieces; the JOGL run-time, the Pebble's Help module, and the
Pebble itself.  Each dialog will likely be seen repeatedly, once for each component. 

Windows/Internet Explorer Download Dialogs

Grant permission for the Pebble to run.  A dialog similar to those shown below
should appear, requesting permission for the Pebble to run.  Make sure the package is signed by
Bright Ideas Software, then click 'OK'.