How do I write my own desktop sharing application in java?

Question

Hello I want write my own desktop sharing application in Java.

The application should have some very default features:

• Capture screen;

• Allow a remote connected user to click / edit fields.

I was thinking to use Java Robot class for mouse movements / key pressing. The problem is i don't know what screen capture strategy to use.

Should I make sequentially screen captures (on the hosting computer) every second, and send those captures with UDP via network, so that the clients can intercept the data-grams ? Isn't this a little overkill for the network ?

What other strategies are available ? (Except trying an already existing app).

PS: If necessary I can even write native code using JNI (still that's the last thing I planning to do).

Later edit: After some investigation I've come to the conclusion of @Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen . Java is probably not the best choice for this kind of application. I can try to use JNI, but that code will cover 75%+ of my project.

I will try to find other alternatives.

Answer 1

Have a good long look at the Ultra VNC project on SourceForge. Great place to start.