More info about Java requirements in User Guide and direct users to this page instead of directly to the Java download page

[exalate-issue-sync]

Conversation started in: PUBDEV-7884

Can we change all the in-code “Download Java” URLs to all point to the same static URL in our User Guide, where we have a more up-to-date & nuanced explanation of our Java requirements and the exact URLs of where to get different versions of Oracle Java and OpenJDK?

This way we won’t have to maintain / track all the places in the code that we have Download Java URLs and we can simply change the info in our User Guide (which we have to do anyway every time we add support for a new version).

To summarize:

Create a place in the H2O User Guide where we provide more information about Java requirements and where to download these versions.

Redirect users to this section from all other places in the User Guide, R, or Python docs, that we talk about downloading Java. Note that it also says “Download latest Java” when you run {{h2o.init()}} on a machine that has no Java installed (in addition to the case where the user has an unsupported Java).

Change the error message in the backend to point to this page instead of directly to Java.

More background:

I think there’s at least a few places in the code & in our docs where we have links to the “latest Java”, so it’s a bit of a pain to keep those URLs all up to date with a static URL to our highest supported version. Also, I am not sure if oracle.com has a public facing URL for each version (we’d have to check). When you search “Java 14” for example, you may end up on this page, an archive: [https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/oracle-java-archive-downloads.html|https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/oracle-java-archive-downloads.html]

Here’s one place we link to the “latest Java” page in the R client but I think there may be places in Java or Python as well: [https://github.com/h2oai/h2o-3/blob/rel-zermelo/h2o-r/h2o-package/R/connection.R#L620|https://github.com/h2oai/h2o-3/blob/rel-zermelo/h2o-r/h2o-package/R/connection.R#L620]

I think the main problem is that people simply search “Install Java” and it brings people to page on oracle.com with the latest version, and it has Java 15, 11 (LTS) and 8 all on that same page and they typically just install Java 15 without thinking anything about it. The only place we document the supported versions of Java in our User Guide is here (not sure if people know to look at this in advance of trying to install): [http://docs.h2o.ai/h2o/latest-stable/h2o-docs/welcome.html#requirements|http://docs.h2o.ai/h2o/latest-stable/h2o-docs/welcome.html#requirements]

[h2o-ops]

JIRA Issue Details

Jira Issue: PUBDEV-8053
Assignee: hannah.tillman
Reporter: Erin LeDell
State: Resolved
Fix Version: N/A
Attachments: N/A
Development PRs: Available

[h2o-ops]

Linked PRs from JIRA

#5422