Installing J2ME Software On Your Cellphone

Ever gone to a website with your cellphone and had trouble installing the J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition) software from there? Do you find that it’s much easier to download the files on your computer?

Here’s an easy way to fix that:

You’ll either need access to your own website on the internet or you’ll have to turn on the web server that’s probably already installed on your computer if you’re using the lastest system software like Mac OS X or Windows XP.

  1. Create a directory on your website for your J2ME software. You can call it whatever you like. The simpler the better. Something like “/j2me” might be good.
  2. If you don’t have a .htaccess file in the root level of your website, create one with a text editor.
  3. Add these MIME types to your .htaccess file: 
    AddType text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor jad
AddType application/java-archive jar
  4. Enter the URL for your website and new J2ME directory in your cellphone and save it as a bookmark. Probably something like “http://www.mysite.com/j2me” for a server on the internet or “http://0.0.0.0/j2me” for a local server on your own computer. Obviously “mysite.com” and “0.0.0.0” should be the name of your website or your IP address.

Then when you find J2ME software on the web that you want to install on your phone all you need to do is this:

  1. Download the J2ME application .jar file and it’s descriptor .jad file to your computer.
  2. Open the .jad file with a text editor.
  3. Make sure the line MIDlet-Jar-URL: is simply AppFilename.jar. Or whatever the .jar file is called.
  4. Upload the two files into the J2ME directory of your website.
  5. Surf to that directory with your cellphone by selecting the bookmark you setup.
  6. Select the .jad file from the directory listing to download it and install your J2ME software.