Applet in a .jar file?

Question

I want to program a program which can be used as application or as applet. Is it possible to create a .jar file and use something inside as applet? What would the <applet> tag look like?

Answer 1

Sorry, I guess I thought you had this working already. In any case, here is an example of some JApplet code that runs either as an applet on a web page or as an application in a JFrame. It is the applet from the html-applet tag example I provided above. It is missing some classes, so it won't compile of course, but it shows all the applet vs. application code. This methodology also works in older non-swing applets ...just follow a technique similar to what you see below:
If you didn't need to see this ...please just ignore it. Good luck.
/** Applet or application example. */
public class RasterGameOfLife extends javax.swing.JApplet {
  RasterLifeCanvas canvas;                // The drawing area
  RasterLifeCanvas.LifeControls controls; // The drawing controls
  /** the applets init method sets up some gui components */
  public void init() {
    canvas = new RasterLifeCanvas();
    controls = canvas.getControls();
    getContentPane().setLayout( new java.awt.BorderLayout() );
    getContentPane().add( "Center", canvas );
    getContentPane().add( "South", controls );
  /** the applets destroy method cleans up after execution */
  public void destroy() {
    remove( controls );
    remove( canvas );
  /** the applets start method enables and begins an animation sequence */
  public void start() {
    controls.setEnabled( true );
    controls.startAnimation();
  /** the applets stop method stops and disables an animation sequence */
  public void stop() {
    controls.stopAnimation();
    controls.setEnabled( false );
   * main is where the alternative application code is placed
   * this code does not execute when the program is run as an applet
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    javax.swing.JFrame f = new javax.swing.JFrame();      // create a JFrame for the application
    final RasterGameOfLife life = new RasterGameOfLife(); // create an instance of the applet
    life.init();     // Manually call the init method
    life.start();    // Manually call the start method
    f.addWindowListener( new java.awt.event.WindowAdapter() {
      public void windowClosing( java.awt.event.WindowEvent e ) {
        life.stop(); // Manually call the stop method
        System.exit(0);
    f.getContentPane().add( "Center", life );
    // or sometimes I use this alternative to get the applets contentPane
    //f.getContentPane().add( "Center", life.getContentPane() );
    f.setSize( 734, 435 );
    f.show();
}