Applet loading screen

Question

Hi guys,
I have searched the forums but can't find a suitable solution to my problem.
I am using the following Applet to hide the standard java loading screen. My main applet consists of 3 jar files which are all about 300k. I would like to present a progress bar to the user while they download but can't find anyway to get this information. For example, number of bytes to download and the amount downloaded.
public class AppletLoader extends Applet implements Runnable, AppletStub {
    //the loading thread
    private Thread _thread;
    //the applet to load name
    private String _appletName;
    //the applet to load
    private Applet _applet;
    //the loading screen
    private LoadingScreen _screen;
    //the loaded flag
    private boolean _loaded;
    public void init() {
        initApplet();
        //install the look and feel
        try {
            ChessLookAndFeel.install();
        } catch (Exception exp) {
            //print the error
            ExceptionUtil.printException(exp);
        //create the screen
        _screen = new LoadingScreen(this);
        //get the name of the applet to load
        _appletName = getParameter("applet");
        add(_screen);
        //if there isn't one, print a message
        if (_appletName == null) {
            _screen.setErrorMessage("No applet to load.");
        } else {
            _screen.setLoadingMessage("Please wait - loading Titan Chess");
    public void initApplet() {
        setSize(new Dimension(906, 500));
    public void run() {
        //if there's no applet to load, don't bother loading it!
        if (_appletName == null) return;
        try {
            //get the class for the applet we want
            Class applet_class = Class.forName(_appletName);
            //create an instance of the applet
            _applet = (Applet)applet_class.newInstance();
            //set the applet's stub - this will allow the real applet to use
            //this applet's document base, code base, and applet context.
            _applet.setStub(this);
            //remove the old message and put the applet up
            remove(_screen);
            setLayout(new GridLayout(1, 0));
            //add the real applet as a child component
            add(_applet);
            //crank up the real applet
            _applet.init();
            _applet.start();
        } catch (Exception exp) {
            //print the error
            ExceptionUtil.printException(exp);
            //if we got an error anywhere, print it
            _screen.setErrorMessage("Error loading Titan Chess");
        _loaded = true;
        //make sure the screen layout is redrawn
        validate();
    public void start() {
        _thread = new Thread(this);
        _thread.start();
    //the following methods delegate applet methods to the loaded applet.
    public void stop() {
        if (_loaded) {
            _applet.stop();
        } else {
            _thread.stop();
            _thread = null;
    public void destroy() {
        if (_loaded) {
            _applet.destroy();
    public void appletResize(int width, int height) {       
        //resize the applet
        resize(width, height);
}I have seen examples where they load each class but my applet is packaged in jar files (which download much quicker and are signable).
Any ideas?

Answer 1

to do that, make the VERY first thing you do in init() be to create a BufferedImage and draw your message on it. Then make your paint message look like this:public void paint(Graphics g) {
     g.drawImage(yourImageName, 0, 0, null);
//and
public void update(Graphics g) {
     paint(g);
}Then call update(getGraphics() and that will put it on the screen, and it will redraw itself even if someone messes with the screen or hides it then comes back. You'll also probably want to have a flag "ifLoading" or something to check to see if paint() should actually do anything, because if you're not loading that stuff, you probably have a game loop running during which you're probably trying to keep a constant framerate. If you're doing that, you don't want paint() to do anything because it'll get in your way.