Next-gen Applet is completely blank on Mac OS X

Question

Hi.
I am experiencing a strange behavior on Mac OS X with Java Applets deployed though the JNLP mechanism (i.e., exploiting the next-generation Java Plug-in).
For testing purposes, I have developed a VERY SIMPLE applet, just setting a BorderLayout on JApplet's contentPane, then adding sample JButtons on sides, and a sample JLabel in the center. Here is the code:
====
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TestApplet extends JApplet
public void init()
uiInit();
// TODO overwrite start(), stop() and destroy() methods
private void uiInit()
try
SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(new Runnable()
public void run()
JButton northButton = new JButton("North button");
JButton southButton = new JButton("South button");
JButton eastButton = new JButton("East button");
JButton westButton = new JButton("West button");
JLabel centerLabel = new JLabel("Center label");
getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
getContentPane().add(northButton, BorderLayout.NORTH);
getContentPane().add(southButton, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
getContentPane().add(eastButton, BorderLayout.EAST);
getContentPane().add(westButton, BorderLayout.WEST);
getContentPane().add(centerLabel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
catch (Exception ex)
// It's OK
====
While this simple Applet works fine on Windows clients running a recent JRE, it displays NOTHING on recent Mac OS X clients (tested on both Mac OS X 10.7 and 10.8).
You can test this Applet yourself at:
http://67.225.240.233/TestApplet/TestApplet.htm
Can some Mac users check if they obtain a blank screen on their Mac OS X clients as well?
Can someone guess why I am obtaining this behavior? A bug of Apple's implementation? If yes, it would be a really SERIOUS bug...
It is important to notice that this same applet displays fine on Mac if using the "old fashioned" <applet> tag (i.e., no JNLP).
Any feedback or hint would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks and best regards,
Marco

Answer 1

Thank you. That helps a lot. Since update 9 seemed to cause problems with webstart I had been focusing on trying different methods to start it. It never occurred to me to try changing the size. Although with a smaller size I'm still getting random graphics artifacts(short red lines and dots through out as well as combo boxes that don't show up and tabs where the text shows but not the tab), but it still requires scrolling so I'll try opening it in a page by itself to avoid any scrolling and see if it looks more normal. This applet is using double buffering because its drawing genes, heat maps, sequences that users can zoom in and out and navigate so it just didn't look great without double buffering.
Everything that you describe seems to fit with what I'm seeing. Thank you for figuring it out and submitting a bug report. I hope they'll fix it soon.