Mac/FireFox Java/JavaScript interaction bug

Question

Hi,
I'm desperately trying to find a solution to a very platform-specific issue. Basically, I'm trying to get an applet to interact with the DOM of a web page. The basic procedure should be as follows:
1) Page loads
2) Applet loads
3) Applet reads in data file (as specified by parameter in object tag)
4) Applet sets title of document to contents of datafile
5) Applet sets flag to indicate that it's finished
6) Javascript checks flag regularly
7) When applet flag is set, JavaScript transfers the title to the body (using a div and changing the innerHTML property)
This works perfectly on most platforms (FF2/PC, FF3/PC, IE6/PC, IE7/PC, Safari/Mac) but for some reason FF/Mac isn't working. Or rather it is, but only about once per 50 attempts.
I had read that having an applet inside a <div> tag was a problem for FF/Mac, so I moved it outside, but it's still not working. Most of the time the applet is simply failing to set the title.
I'm using Eclipse for development, and the following libraries:
java.net.URL
org.w3c.dom.html.*
com.sun.java.browser.dom.*
The Java code in question is as follows:
DOMService serv = DOMService.getService (this);
dummy = (String) serv.invokeAndWait (new DOMAction () {public Object run (DOMAccessor accessor) {HTMLDocument website = (HTMLDocument)accessor.getDocument (FeedApplet.this); website.setTitle(docstring); return website.getTitle ();}});
Any help would be much appreciated - thanks!
Andrew

Answer 1

Thanks for your replies. Sorry for being a bit vague - it was an end-of-the-day-end-of-my-wits posting!
baftos, I've tried replacing the init() routine with a start() routine, but this hasn't changed anything. The problem appears to be with the Javascript timing, in that it's assuming the applet has finished before it has actually finished.
jschell, step 4 appears to be the one that's failing. The title isn't being changed, but usually the taskbar says that the applet has started (occasionally it comes up with a NullPointerException). The system just seems to wait for a long time and nothing happens.The Javascript checks every second to see if a $ symbol (which is effectively the trigger) has appeared in the title, and if so then it moves the contents of the page from the title to the holding div. The flag in the applet is reset on starting the applet, and accessed through a get-type method, so it shouldn't be cached.
It works in OmniWeb and Safari on a Mac, and IE/FF/Opera on a PC, so it's very specifically rooted in the FF/Mac problem zone.