Designing full website using java applets

views:

271

answers:

+1 Q:

Designing full website using java applets

Hi,

I want some suggestions.

I want to create a website with using Java Applets.

Could u pls suggest me if I am thinking in the right way or not? What are the problems (other than development) my site will have to face, mean like flash plugin, users having JRE installed on their system or not, The applet based site performs good on each system or not and what all the user should already have installed on their computer to see my applet based site as if they are looking some HTML based site just by opening any browser.

Thanks

Depending on what you are creating, using Java Applets can be a bit heavy for a simple website. Have you heard about Servlets?

Partial 2010-01-11 19:09:29

JavaFX essentially uses Applets under the hood, so it wont be any less heavy. Servlets are an entirely different beast all together since they run on the server not on the client.

Jay Askren 2010-01-11 19:12:27

@Jay: I'll correct that for JavaFX. My point of using Servlets is exactly that: using a server side technology. Since Applets usually takes a lot of space for a simple web page, it is possible to have a server that harness what is possible with Java.

Partial 2010-01-12 00:54:30

+2 A:

From a technical perspective, all a user will need to user your applet-based site is a JRE. I would guess that at least 95% of all users would meet this requirement.

If you want to know whether I think developing a site using applets is a good idea, my feeling is that it is not. Applets are sort of clunky, and I can't think of any reasonably popular site that uses them extensively.

One possible reason to use applets is that you need to bypass the usual browser security restrictions, e.g. access the local file system. You can do this with applets if the applet is signed and the user grants the applet the necessary permission. I really can't think of any other good reason to use applets, as there are plenty of other RIA technologies which are superior (IMO). Examples include JavaFX, Flash, GWT, Silverlight.

Don 2010-01-11 19:15:42

I think that 95% is quite a high guess. Flash is 99% and java will be much lower on the whole. I guess the % would be based on your audience.

Milhous 2010-01-12 03:11:34

+1 A:

Potential issues of using Applets:

Applets do not have good market penetration(Flash is the dominate player)
The end-user install process for the Applet browser plugin is poor
A web site built entirely in an applet will not expose its content to search engines and thus will be bad for SEO(flash has the same issue)

toby 2010-01-11 19:16:22

reinierpost 2010-01-11 19:17:04

I think Applets have good penetration, just not as good as Flash, at the moment. There is some crawling that can be done with Flash (don't know the details).

Tom Hawtin - tackline 2010-01-11 19:25:42

Applets get a lot of bad publicity for mainly historic reasons on StackOverflow - but even given that there's very few reasons why one would use a complete applet driven site.

For effects and multimedia it would be worth you looking into an HTML site with JavaScript and CSS effects. These have come a long way in the last few years. JavaScript libraries such as JQuery, MooTools allow you to add effects and server communication (through AJAX) simply and cross-browser.

You can even have a full word-like editor in JavaScript, see Tiny MCE!

Pool 2010-01-12 02:28:25

I would think most of the answers from this thread applies here too, plus one: Java is not as widely deployed as Flash.

Yet, I think it would be very interesting doing so.

OscarRyz 2010-01-12 02:42:43

ansaurus

tags:

views:

answers:

Designing full website using java applets

related questions