Creating Interactive Web Programs

Now that Java has made the transition from a child prodigy to an established language, it is being used for all kinds of large-scale business software and other applications. How ever, for some people, the core appeal of the language remains a type of program that Java made possible: the applet.

Applets are programs designed to run as part of a World Wide Web page. When a Java applet is encountered on a page, it is downloaded to the user's computer and begins running.

During this hour you'll be introduced to applet programming and Java Web Start, a way to install and run Java software from within a web browser.

Programming applets with Java is much different from creating applications with Java. Because applets must be downloaded from a page each time they are run, they're smaller than most applications to reduce download time. Also, because applets run on the computer of the person using the applet, they have numerous security restrictions in place to prevent malicious or damaging code from being run.

The following topics will be covered:

• Displaying information in an applet
• Stopping and starting an applet
• Putting an applet on a web page
• Customizing an applet with parameters on a web page
• Receiving parameters in an applet
• Running applets with the Java Plug-in