Help!!! Need Java Applet to work in IE

Question

I found some applets (text scrollers) from the sun site that i wanted to use. downloaded them, but they do not work in IE that does not have JVM. in IE that does have JVM it says 'Java 1.1 Required' where the applet should be. is there a simple way to get sun java applets to work with IE and the MS Virtual Machine? I can't require my site visitors to have to download extra toys/plugins...

Answer 1

If you are looking for a purely AWT scrolling applet. Here is one I wrote several years ago. Please note that there are some deprecated methods in it (mainly the thread start and stop methods). It will still compile though. If you want it, take it.
Source:import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.applet.*;
import java.net.*;
public class ScrollApplet extends Applet implements Runnable
   /*=*********************
   * private data members *
   private Thread myThread = null;
   private boolean hasTextDisplayed;
   private int appletWidth, appletHeight;
   private int yPosition;
   private int xPosition;
   private Image textImage;
   private int imageWidth;
   private Graphics textGraphics;
   private Cursor oldCursor;
   private Cursor newCursor = new Cursor(Cursor.HAND_CURSOR);
   //parameters
   private int delay;
   private String displayText;
   private Color bgColor, fgColor;
   private int fontSize, fontStyle;
   private Font fontType;
   private String urlValue;
   /*=***************
   * applet methods *
   public void init()
      //assign values to private data members
      hasTextDisplayed = false;
      appletHeight = yPosition = getSize().height;
      appletWidth = xPosition = getSize().width;
      //set up the environment
      extractParameters();
      //determine the yPosition to place the image
      calculateYPosition();
      //set up the text image
      FontMetrics fm = getFontMetrics(fontType);
      imageWidth = fm.stringWidth(displayText);
      textImage = createImage(imageWidth, appletHeight);
      textGraphics = textImage.getGraphics();
      textGraphics.setColor(bgColor);
      textGraphics.fillRect(0,0,imageWidth,appletHeight);
      textGraphics.setColor(fgColor);
      textGraphics.setFont(fontType);
      textGraphics.drawString(displayText, 0, yPosition);
      oldCursor = this.getCursor();
      addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
         public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e)
            if (urlValue != null) {
               Component thisApplet = e.getComponent();
               thisApplet.setCursor(oldCursor);
            showStatus(" ");
            myThread.resume();
         public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e)
            myThread.suspend();
            if (urlValue != null) {
               Component thisApplet = e.getComponent();
               thisApplet.setCursor(newCursor);
               showStatus(urlValue);
            else
               showStatus("paused");
         public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e)
            if (urlValue != null)
               try {
                  URL u = new URL(urlValue);
                  getAppletContext().showDocument(u, "_self");
               } catch(MalformedURLException ex) {
               showStatus("MalformedURLException: " +ex);
   }//end init method
   public void start()
      myThread = new Thread(this);
      myThread.start();
   }//end start method
   public void update(Graphics g)
   //overwrote this method to avoid repainting of background before all text displays
      if (hasTextDisplayed == true)
         //repaint the background
         g.setColor(bgColor);
         g.fillRect(xPosition+imageWidth, 0, appletWidth - (xPosition + imageWidth),
                      appletHeight);
         g.setColor(fgColor);
      paint(g);
   }//end update method
   public void paint(Graphics g)
      setBackground(bgColor);
      g.drawImage(textImage,xPosition,0,this);
   }//end paint method
   public void stop()
   { myThread = null; }
   /*=*******************************************************************************
   * applet method getParameterInfo():                                              *
   * Returns information about the parameters that are understood by this applet.   *
   * An applet should override this method to return an array of Strings describing *
   * these parameters.  Each element of the array should be a set of three Strings  *
   * containing the name, the type, and a description.                              *
   public String[][] getParameterInfo()
      String parameterInfo[][] = {
         {"DELAYPARAM", "int", "The interval to pause in milliseconds"},
         {"TEXTPARAM", "string", "The text that will be displayed"},
         {"BGPARAM", "Color", "The bg color for the applet, in html format #FFFFFF"},
         {"FGPARAM", "Color", "The fg color for the text, in html format #FFFFFF"},
         {"FONTSIZEPARAM", "int", "The font size of the text"},
         {"FONTTYPEPARAM", "string", "The name of the font to use"},
         {"FONTSTYLEPARAM", "string", "bold, italic, or bold+italic"},
         {"URLPARAM", "string", "hyperlink"}
      return parameterInfo;
   }//end getParameterInfo method
   /*=*****************************************************************************
   * applet method getAppletInfo():                                               *
   * Returns information about this applet. An applet should override this method *
   * to return a String containing information about the author, version, and     *
   * copyright of the applet.                                                     *
   public String getAppletInfo()
      String infoAboutMe;
      infoAboutMe = new String(
         "Author:  Your Name Here/n" +
         "Description:  My first text scroller\n" +
         "Version: 1.0"
      return infoAboutMe;
   }//end getAppletInfo method
   /*=***************
   * thread methods *
   public void run()
      Thread current = Thread.currentThread();
      //loop until thread is stopped
      while (myThread == current)
         repaint();
         try {
            current.sleep(delay);
            xPosition--;
         } catch (InterruptedException e) {}
         if (xPosition <= (appletWidth - imageWidth))
            hasTextDisplayed = true;
         else
            hasTextDisplayed = false;
         if (xPosition == (0 - imageWidth))
            xPosition = appletWidth;
   }//end required run method
   /*=**********************************************************************
   * extractParameters():  Sets all parameter values, if any were provided *
   public void extractParameters()
      String delayValue = getParameter("DELAYPARAM");
      String textValue = getParameter("TEXTPARAM");
      String bgColorValue = getParameter("BGPARAM");
      String fgColorValue = getParameter("FGPARAM");
      String fontSizeValue = getParameter("FONTSIZEPARAM");
      String fontTypeValue = getParameter("FONTTYPEPARAM");
      String fontStyleValue = getParameter("FONTSTYLEPARAM");
      String urlParam = getParameter("URLPARAM");
      //set delay to one tenth of a second if missing parameter
      delay = ((delayValue == null) ? 100 : Integer.parseInt(delayValue));
      urlValue = (urlParam == null ? null : urlParam);
      displayText = ((textValue == null) ?
            new String("NO TEXT WAS PROVIDED!") :
            textValue);
      bgColor = determineColor(bgColorValue);
      fgColor = determineColor(fgColorValue);
      fontStyle = determineFontStyle(fontStyleValue);
      fontSize = ((fontSizeValue == null) ? 12 : Integer.parseInt(fontSizeValue));
      fontType = new Font(fontTypeValue, fontStyle, fontSize);
   }//end extractParameters method
   /*=*************************************************
   * determineColor():  returns the appropriate color *
   public Color determineColor(String value)
      return parseHTMLHex(value);
   }//end determineColor method
   /*=*****************************************************************************
   * parseHTMLHex(): parses an HTML hex (eg #FFFFFF) and returns the Color object *
   public static Color parseHTMLHex(String htmlHex) {
      Color color = new Color(220,220,220);  //default grey
      if (htmlHex != null) {
         String red = htmlHex.substring(1,3);
         String green = htmlHex.substring(3,5);
         String blue = htmlHex.substring(5);
         color = new Color(Integer.parseInt(red,16),
                       Integer.parseInt(green,16),
                       Integer.parseInt(blue,16));
      }//end if
      return color;
   }//end parseHTMLHex method
   /*=******************************************
   * determineFontStyle():  returns font sytle *
   public int determineFontStyle(String value)
      int returnVal;
      if (value == null)
         returnVal = Font.PLAIN;
      else if (value.equalsIgnoreCase("plain"))
         returnVal = Font.PLAIN;
      else if (value.equalsIgnoreCase("bold"))
         returnVal = Font.BOLD;
      else if (value.equalsIgnoreCase("italic"))
         returnVal = Font.ITALIC;
      else if (value.equalsIgnoreCase("bold+italic"))
         returnVal = Font.BOLD + Font.ITALIC;
      else
         returnVal = Font.PLAIN;
      return returnVal;
   }//end determineFontStyle method
   /*=**********************************************************
   * calculateYPosition(): want text to be in middle of applet *
   public void calculateYPosition()
      //wasYPositionCalculated = true;
      //make calculations to center font in applet window
      int appletMidHeight = appletHeight / 2;         //the middle of the applet
      FontMetrics fm = getFontMetrics(fontType);    //font metrics for current font
      int fontMidHeight = fm.getAscent() / 2;         //the middle of the font
      int currentFontSizeValue;                       //temp value for font size
      //if the font size if too big, fix it
      if ((currentFontSizeValue = fm.getAscent()) > appletHeight)
         //cycle through font sizes until find one that fits
         while (currentFontSizeValue > appletHeight)
            fontType = new Font(getParameter("FONTTYPEPARAM"), fontStyle, --fontSize);
            fm = getFontMetrics(fontType);
            currentFontSizeValue = fm.getAscent();
         //set the new values for the new font
         setFont(fontType);
         fm = getFontMetrics(fontType);
         fontMidHeight = fm.getAscent() / 2;
      yPosition = appletMidHeight + fontMidHeight - 3;
   }//end calculateYPosition()
}//end applethtml:<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<TITLE>Test scroller applet</title>
</head>
<BODY>
<h1>Scroller Applet</h1>
<!--CODEBASE = "."-->
<APPLET
  CODE     = "ScrollApplet.class"
  NAME     = "TestApplet"
  WIDTH    = 400
  HEIGHT   = 30
  HSPACE   = 0
  VSPACE   = 0
  ALIGN    = middle
>
<PARAM NAME="DELAYPARAM" VALUE="10">
<PARAM NAME="TEXTPARAM" VALUE="Simple Old Scrolling Applet?">
<PARAM NAME="BGPARAM" VALUE="#000000">
<PARAM NAME="FGPARAM" VALUE="#CCCCCC">
<PARAM NAME="FONTSIZEPARAM" VALUE="24">
<PARAM NAME="FONTTYPEPARAM" VALUE="TimesRoman">
<PARAM NAME="FONTSTYLEPARAM" VALUE="italic">
<PARAM NAME="URLPARAM" VALUE="http://quote.yahoo.com/quotes?SYMBOLS=DISH">
</applet>
</body>
</html>tajenkins