JRE8 Download Require JavaScript to be Enabled

[johnson]

I had a setup previously working to download the latest version of JRE8 from this URL (https://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp), but as of a few weeks ago, Ketarin would load the page with a line of '<noscript>This site requires JavaScript to be enabled.</noscript>'.  It works fine in a browser, so I'm curious if there's something I can tweak in the settings to workaround this issue or not. 

[shawn]

Welcome aboard, @johnson

I just noticed this myself, and it's especially annoying since the new security update for Java was released today. I'm getting really sick of the switch to a JS-only web. 

I haven't had much time to investigate, but all I'm finding are the links through the "manual" page. They do continue to work, so distribution is fine with those but detection and initial download is woefully flawed.  

If you find another way please share.

[shawn]

I found a workaround for the full offline installer packages using static URLs without dependence on client-side javascript.

This method uses the automatic update URLs from jusched.exe, so should be permanently stable since it's unlikely they can rework how that operates without actually releasing a new major version, and since it uses these static URLs it can work to get the latest Java 7 without special licensing. This method consumes the new URLs, extracting data from a couple different XML files, and requires a little content munging. It does work though.  

First, start here. (For Java 7 you can start here.) Parse the resulting XML for the first <url> value. The first <url> entry is the current version.

Now request that URL and collect it's <url> value. This is almost the final URL. If you want you can get the version number from the <version> value, too.

Now we have to munge it, or we'll get the auto-update version which is a web-based installer and includes crapware. replace "-au.exe" with "-i586.exe" for the 32-bit version and "-x64.exe" for the 64-bit version.

That's your download URL.

Here's an XML app profile for Java (x86):

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<Jobs>
  <ApplicationJob xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <WebsiteUrl>https://www.java.com/en/</WebsiteUrl>
    <UserAgent>Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/86.0.4240.75 Safari/537.36</UserAgent>
    <UserNotes />
    <IgnoreFileInformation>false</IgnoreFileInformation>
    <CheckForUpdatesOnly>false</CheckForUpdatesOnly>
    <VariableChangeIndicator>version</VariableChangeIndicator>
    <HashVariable />
    <HashType>None</HashType>
    <CanBeShared>true</CanBeShared>
    <ShareApplication>false</ShareApplication>
    <ExclusiveDownload>false</ExclusiveDownload>
    <Variables>
      <item>
        <key>
          <string>versionstub</string>
        </key>
        <value>
          <UrlVariable>
            <RegexRightToLeft>false</RegexRightToLeft>
            <VariableType>RegularExpression</VariableType>
            <Regex>&lt;version&gt;1.([^&lt;&gt;-]+)</Regex>
            <Url>{versionurl}</Url>
            <Name>versionstub</Name>
          </UrlVariable>
        </value>
      </item>
      <item>
        <key>
          <string>version</string>
        </key>
        <value>
          <UrlVariable>
            <RegexRightToLeft>false</RegexRightToLeft>
            <VariableType>Textual</VariableType>
            <TextualContent>{versionstub:regexreplace:\.0_:u}</TextualContent>
            <Name>version</Name>
          </UrlVariable>
        </value>
      </item>
      <item>
        <key>
          <string>versionurl</string>
        </key>
        <value>
          <UrlVariable>
            <RegexRightToLeft>false</RegexRightToLeft>
            <VariableType>RegularExpression</VariableType>
            <Regex>&lt;url&gt;([^&lt;&gt;]+)&lt;/url&gt;</Regex>
            <Url>https://javadl-esd-secure.oracle.com/update/1.8.0/map-m-1.8.0.xml</Url>
            <Name>versionurl</Name>
          </UrlVariable>
        </value>
      </item>
      <item>
        <key>
          <string>sdownloadstub</string>
        </key>
        <value>
          <UrlVariable>
            <RegexRightToLeft>false</RegexRightToLeft>
            <VariableType>RegularExpression</VariableType>
            <Regex>&lt;url&gt;([^&lt;&gt;]+)&lt;/url&gt;</Regex>
            <Url>{versionurl}</Url>
            <TextualContent />
            <Name>sdownloadstub</Name>
          </UrlVariable>
        </value>
      </item>
      <item>
        <key>
          <string>sdownload</string>
        </key>
        <value>
          <UrlVariable>
            <RegexRightToLeft>false</RegexRightToLeft>
            <VariableType>Textual</VariableType>
            <Regex />
            <TextualContent>{sdownloadstub:replace:-au.exe:-i586.exe}</TextualContent>
            <Name>sdownload</Name>
          </UrlVariable>
        </value>
      </item>
    </Variables>
    <DeletePreviousFile>true</DeletePreviousFile>
    <Enabled>true</Enabled>
    <FixedDownloadUrl>{sdownload}</FixedDownloadUrl>
    <Name>Java (x86)</Name>
  </ApplicationJob>
</Jobs>

 

[shawn]

Removing "-iftw" for v7 works for the 32-bit version, but the v7 x64 version doesn't. If anyone has any ideas for workarounds let me know.

[johnson]

This is great work!  Just noticed the software update, and I'm really glad this is working now.