Got Applet?
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Applet tag Basics

Got Applet?

Well, let us say that you have obtained an applet package which you downloaded from somewhere. What now? Here are some steps to make it work when it is downloaded from Geocities.

Unpack it with any utility which support long filenames. For zip packages the best is a WinZip utility. Those who use Macintosh should use ZipIt.

Look into the package. You will probably find some notes or a Readme file giving a description of the applet, and how to install it. You will also find a .java source file that you really do not need unless you want to modify the applet. Well, you should also find some files with .class extension. Some applets need several .class files to run a single applet. You may find images or sounds necessary for that applet. Usually, but not always, you will find an HTML example on how to use the applet.

Do not try to rename .class files! ...or convert names to UpperCase or LowerCase. Java is case sensitive, and class names (stored inside files) must exactly match the filename.

Now you can try to run that applet from your Hard Drive and check how it's working. Suppose it works fine from your local disk. Then you need to understand what you want to do with it. Look into the unpacked directory, does it contain subdirectories? If it does, then you need to do some more work. Since geocities does not allow us to have subdirectories, you need to move the files to one or more directories. One must be careful if the subdirectories contain .class files as well. Not all files should be copied in the root directory. Sometimes it may not work with the path to some components built inside the applet itself. One needs to create a .zip file and use the ARCHIVE inside the Applet tag. Then look into the example HTML source, Find an <APPLET......> tag. Does it have a codebase="some/path" statement inside? If yes,temporary remove that codebase statement, you do not need it for local testing if all .class files are in the same directory with your HTML file. Check all <PARAM....> tags. The tags also can contain some path to image or sound files. For example:

You need to correct that path. For this example, assuming you moved all files to a single directory you will need to have instead:

Well, time to see if everything works, after all of the changes.

Now you can add the applet to your HTML. Just copy all rows from <APPLET> to </APPLET> into your HTML. Check how it's working now! Need to modify any applet parameters for your own purposes? Time to do that. Do not forget to check it locally on your hard drive before you attempt to upload files to the server.

Well most of the work is done now. Before you upload HTML you need to make some more editions, add CODEBASE="http://your.server.com/some/path" pointing to your directory where the applet class file is located on a server. If the applet requires some images or other files to be uploaded to the server, I strongly recommend that you specify the full URL for this resources. Some browsers (Netscape Communicator 4.xx) requires codebase and full files URLs to eliminate it's security manager bug problems. You can't be sure your visitors will be always use bugs free Netscape 3.02 Gold or higher , Huh?

Please, follow this link for Uploading instructions.

Special credits to Raymond J. E. Knoll for help in editing this page.