Unable to launch Desktop Tools

Posted by Barbara Hill Meyers on Tuesday, February 25, 2014 at 01:53PM

We have recently heard from users that, with the recent Java and browser updates, GenomeSpace desktop tools (such as Genomica and IGV) are being blocked from running in browsers.

You may have seen a window such as the one below after attempting to launch one of these tools:

(The image below is from Firefox 27.0.1 running on Windows 7 64-bit)

To resolve this issue, in any browser, you will need to turn off the pop-up blocker for GenomeSpace.

For Firefox:

On Windows or Mac, if you get the window you see above, click Options (Windows) or Preferences (Mac) and "Allow pop-ups from gsui.genomespace.org". You will then need to close that window and launch the tool again. From there the behavior should be as expected.

If you did not get that window or it disappears before you can click on the Options or Preferences button:

  1. Go to the Firefox menu (upper left of the browser window (Windows) or Nav (Mac)) and select Options (Windows) or Preferences (Mac)
  2. Go to the Content tab and click Exceptions.
  3. You can now edit the list of sites allowed to open pop-up windows from your browser. The address to enter for GenomeSpace is "gsui.genomespace.org"
  4. Close all the Preferences or Options windows and relaunch the tool.

For Chrome:

You will likely only see the error window for a short period of time and will then need to manually add "gsui.genomespace.org" to the exception list, following the instructions here

For Safari:

As with Chrome, you will likely only see the error window for a short period of time. If pop-ups are blocked, nothing else will happen. If pop-ups are not blocked, you should see another browser window open and the jnlp file will be downloaded, per usual.

To disable pop-up blocking in Safari:

  1. From the Safari menu select Preferences.
  2. Select the Security tab and un-check the Block pop-up windows box to enable pop-up windows
  3. Close the Preferences window and relaunch the tool

Note that even after you have done this it may appear that nothing has changed; The error window may appear, a second browser window may be opened, but it may seem that nothing was downloaded. To check this, click on the download icon in the upper left of the Safari browser window.

You should see the launch file for the tool you have selected.

 

Please email us if these tips do not serve to resolve any issues you are having with the launching of GenomeSpace desktop tools.

gs-help (at) broadinstitute.org