Re: web page communicating with an applet

On Dec 23, 5:52 am, kenvc <kvc...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
....
Also, applets are usually a lot harder than
they might seem.  Do you deal with a (small)
set group of browsers, and have control over
the JRE they run?  Applet/browser interaction
problems can be a nightmare.

...I do
have a relatively small base of users (less than 200), and we do have
the ability to require Java 6 runtime.  We can also limit their
browser choices to only a few supported versions.

That will make it significantly simpler.
Try to make sure you have access to the
browsers it is supported on, for testing.

And since I'm here - it is a pity to hear
of yet another Rich client being converted
to plain ol' HTML forms.  Still, if they
do the job that needs doin', it does save
having to load a JRE, or even install one..

Distribution of our app is the biggest argument for conversion to
web.  We work in a dynamic industry where our customers expect
relatively quick turn-around on features.  We use Java Web Start to
distribute our desktop application today, and clients object to
frequent new version distributions...

Had you considered breaking up the app.
into smaller chunks? At least then,
the user only has to download the
changed jars(s), not the entire app.

Also - webstart has a 'lazy download'
facility that might help, as well as the
DownloadService, in which the app. can
take direct control of the downloads (and
might potentially - check for new classes
at the start-up, if found, download them
in the background, then when done, inform
the user that 'an update is available -
click the button to change to new version'
which would basically bounce them out of
the webstart app. then restart it immediately).

It has been a while since I dealt with the
DS, here is an example I was working on..
<http://pscode.org/jws/cache/#eg8>

Two further points while I remember:

1) Caching of classes is one of the thorniest
applet problems. Some browser's will do it
when you don't want, others won't do it when
you do want caching to happen.

2) Since 1.6.0_10+, applets can hook
directly into the JWS API. This provides
several advantages, including the increased
control over resources & resource caching.
<http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/javase/6u10_applets/>

--
Andrew Thompson
http://pscode.org/
.