Spend some time testing <applet> vs. <object>: I must say <object> is actually more compatible and reliable than <applet>. My test results and templates for export-to-web are here.

While already working on the xHTMLs i decided to spend some time improving the loading and status display of starting applets. I found a working, gracefully degrading and customizable method. How it works is outlined at the bottom of the text above.

Let me know what you think.
F

thanks.

it's called dynamic versioning. details are here.

i decided to go for java 1.4.2 as the minimum version since that's the version that introduced the loading-bar and icon .. the current minimum for processing is 1.3 (see here).

what system / java / browsers do you run
did you test the preloader

F

So how do I translate:

code, archive, w, h, mayscript

into:

class, archives[], width, height, mayscript, codebase, params[], type

There's only one archive I need to access. Will that not work? The new appletobject_05.js is far too bloody confusing for a simpleton like me, but I reckon I can customise the loadApplet function you've got there easily.

Because of the custom settings on my folio I should be able to allow users to customise the colors of the loading bar easily.

And what's with all the CDATA tags? What does that do exactly?

Ahem.

So where are these necessary files? And what do I have to do to appletobject_05.js to make it work?

this.preLoadClass = "de.bezier.js.preloading.Preloading.class";
this.preLoadJar   = "ZZZZZZ.jar";

The AppletObject you suggested didn't work. Instead I tried:

var ao = new AppletObject('snakeAI5', ['http://www.robotacid.com/PBeta/snakeAI5/snakeAI5.jar'  ], '400', '400', 'true', '', [], AppletObjects.TAG_OBJECT);

Which got me loading... but no loading bar and on IE it just crashed. Which was how I found out about the preloading class because the console moaned about it whilst IE refused to shut down.

hmm .. might be due to you using full urls. and you don't set a classpath .. lemme check on my server. back in a sec ..

F

by the way .. just having one jar will not give you much of a progress-bar all together. the bar updates (twice) _per_ jar, so with one jar you will have 50% and 100% ...

you might want to alter the "oninit" callback to be:

ao.oninit = function () {
  ao.onstep(0);
};

and mybe re-export your sketches to use seperate jars (see processings preferences) .. then they could all live in one place and share core.jar, opengl.jar .. you get it.

F

fjen wrote on Jan 22^nd, 2007, 9:33pm:

What's a classpath in this context Where do I specify it I'm a bit confused because I've already been getting away with full urls for 'archive' for the simple version.

Not having full urls isn't an option for me I think. It would involve a total re-write of the way my folio handles files, and not having relative paths would mean 'frames'. Plus it will never be pulling in more than one .jar (thanks to Flash htmlText).

I hope you're not thinking I'm being difficult. I just happen to be an auto-didactic programmer - I've had unconventional training.

I figured out what the CDATA tags were for though. They're to protect an XML parser from the code in the <script> nodes.

I may not use this method for my folio, but I would like to get it working myself just to prove to myself I can do it.

Hi Florian

I seem to have missed your Javascript Applet thread. Unfortunately I have been working in parallel on the same topic. I have set up a sourceforge.org account for what I have done so far. Although it seems that you have put a lot more work into this as I have, I would suggest that we merge the two code bases and continue working together on sourceforge so that the whole Java community can benefit from the work and vise versa.

I have included an activeX shell method of Java detection that detects without the "cycle through all versions" hack. It raises a security warning but is useful for Intranet or well trusted sites.

Things that I would like to add...

Connection to a server to help "auto-test" the code. This would log all browser and jre combination that worked and didn't.

A real java detect( with an applet ) for Java versions 1.1 - 1.3.1 on IE that then stores the java version in a cookie or a server side session so that it only has to be run once a session. For example the version checker applet on the processing start page could store the version in the session making java detection for the life of the session unnecessary.

Templates for "{yourdomain} requires at least Java version {version number} update it at {updatesite}", etc...

An iframe version for browsers that do not support Javascript.

Display of error messages if the applet does not load.


My goal for this project is to make it a comfortable as possible to use Java and to increase its pervasiveness.



Servus aus Graz,
Stephen