Articles : JavaBoutique's Introduction to Java :
Building Your First Application :

Writing Applets

Applets are programs that run inside of a web page using the resources the web browser has to offer such as a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and the default set of class libraries.

When you initially hit a web page with an incorporated Java applet, you usually see a gray box where the applet will show up and then slowly, the applet loads and appears in the space of the gray box.

In addition to appearing in a web page, applets can appear in their own windows. That is, they can appear within their own application frame that will popup from the web browser's window. This frame can be moved and iconified separately from the web browser's window.

However, applets that appear in their own window typically display a message like, "Warning: Applet Window" in the bottom of their frame. This tells the user that the frame is part of a Java applet running from inside the browser. The web browser designers added this feature to prevent an applet from masquerading as some other window, such as a system password entry window or as some other application.

The AWT class java.awt.Applet defines an applet. This class provides all of the basic features and methods which makeup an applet object.

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Selena Sol contributes to the JavaBoutique's Introduction to Java. Selena curently works for Barclays Capital in London, one of the leading global investment banks in Europe and has worked as a software developer for the National Center for Human Genome research, Microline Software, Neuron Data, and Electric Eye in Singapore. Selena is perhaps best-known for creating the Public Domain Web Script Archive (Extropia) and writing several books on Web Programming (Perl, CGI, Java).
Email: selena@extropia.com