Browser Like Application

Question

Hi Everyone,
I am going to create a browser-like application in Java. This application can read and render html file. Links provided in the html file is an information to any application and if click, it launches the specified application.
At first, I created an Active-X control and a sample html file that uses this active-X control. Specified in the PARAM of the OBJECT tag is the application path as well as the application exe file. So when the Active-X control is clicked,
it launches the specified application (set in the PARAM). But my manager told me not to use any browser but to create my own browser in Java.
Does anyone has any idea how to implement a browser like application? I may be using DTD to create a set of properties like the OBJECT tag. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much,
Ferdinand

Answer 1

hi,
I am just giving a code written in swings for simple web browser.This may not have much features but it is functional. Hope it would help you.
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;
/** Very simplistic "Web browser" using Swing. Supply a URL on the
* command line to see it initially, and to set the destination
* of the "home" button.
public class Browser extends JFrame implements HyperlinkListener,
ActionListener {
public static void main(String[] args) {
if (args.length == 0)
new Browser("http://www.yahoo.com");
else
new Browser(args[0]);
private JIconButton homeButton;
private JTextField urlField;
private JEditorPane htmlPane;
private String initialURL;
public Browser(String initialURL) {
super("Simple Swing Browser");
this.initialURL = initialURL;
// addWindowListener(new ExitListener());
// WindowUtilities.setNativeLookAndFeel();
JPanel topPanel = new JPanel();
topPanel.setBackground(Color.lightGray);
homeButton = new JIconButton("home.gif");
homeButton.addActionListener(this);
JLabel urlLabel = new JLabel("URL:");
urlField = new JTextField(30);
urlField.setText(initialURL);
urlField.addActionListener(this);
topPanel.add(homeButton);
topPanel.add(urlLabel);
topPanel.add(urlField);
getContentPane().add(topPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
try {
htmlPane = new JEditorPane(initialURL);
htmlPane.setEditable(false);
htmlPane.addHyperlinkListener(this);
JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(htmlPane);
getContentPane().add(scrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
} catch(IOException ioe) {
warnUser("Can't build HTML pane for " + initialURL
+ ": " + ioe);
Dimension screenSize = getToolkit().getScreenSize();
int width = screenSize.width * 8 / 10;
int height = screenSize.height * 8 / 10;
setBounds(width/8, height/8, width, height);
setVisible(true);
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
String url;
if (event.getSource() == urlField)
url = urlField.getText();
else // Clicked "home" button instead of entering URL
url = initialURL;
try {
htmlPane.setPage(new URL(url));
urlField.setText(url);
} catch(IOException ioe) {
warnUser("Can't follow link to " + url + ": " + ioe);
public void hyperlinkUpdate(HyperlinkEvent event) {
if (event.getEventType() == HyperlinkEvent.EventType.ACTIVATED) {
try {
htmlPane.setPage(event.getURL());
urlField.setText(event.getURL().toExternalForm());
} catch(IOException ioe) {
warnUser("Can't follow link to "
+ event.getURL().toExternalForm() + ": " + ioe);
private void warnUser(String message) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, message, "Error",
JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
import javax.swing.*;
public class JIconButton extends JButton {
public JIconButton(String file) {
super(new ImageIcon(file));
setContentAreaFilled(false);
setBorderPainted(false);
setFocusPainted(false);
Bye.
-Dani