Recommended books to learn Java / web applets

Question

I come from a few years experience in .NET, and played a bit with Java during my uni studies.

Could you recommend any good books to learn the best ways to develop a Java web applet?

Answer 1

I wouldn't put applets at the top of the list of Java EE technologies to learn. They were very important when Java first came out, because they made the browser dynamic, but they aren't as important now.

I'd say that the best approach is to start with servlets, JSPs using JSTL (Java Server Pages and JSP Standard Tag Library), and JDBC (database access). You can go a very long way writing web apps just with those technologies.

Answer 2

There is a good SUN tutorial on Applets here.

Answer 3

If you're developing applets, you'll inevitably be better off starting by learning to develop using the swing api. I'd suggest pulling down the netbeans ide, and create a swing ui in it (you'll feel pretty comfy with this if you have experience with winforms, etc.) It's not hard to turn this result into a webstart app or applet. I'm partial to netbeans because of it's excellent ui builder's integration with the matisse layout concept.

If you're interested in an asp.net (ish) framework for developing web applications, take a look at Tapestry. It's not identical, but a lot of the concepts are the same (you extend a page object, you make reusable components, etc.)

Answer 4

Just a suggestion, but the documentation on Sun's Documentation Site and their Tutorial sections offer a lot of good information that'll put you on track with their core functionalities. I'm currently taking a Java course at my local college, and I refer to the API website & documentation sites more frequently than my book.

Answer 5

The use of Applets has declined, especially, in light of newer technologies like Flash. However, you still see some use of Java Applets. For example Facebook has an Applet to help you upload photos.

There is quite a push to re-invigorate the Java applet technology, and most of this push comes from JavaFX. JavaFX is a scripting environment which offers many of the features which has made Flash so popular. JavaFX runs on top of Java's applet technology, but uses it's own graphics run time instead of Swing.

Most books on Java applets were written pre-Y2K. The few up to date books on applets are mostly written for non programmers. See the books by Elizabeth Boese for example.

If you want to take up learning JavaFX (which will teach you a bit about applets), I'd suggest reading Pro JavaFX™ Platform.