Problem with applet file loading

Question

I have a problem with loading files into a java applet. import java.applet.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.net.*;
public class main extends Applet {
     private static ArrayList<String> SGM;
     public void init() {
          SGM = new ArrayList<String>();
          String gameDir = getParameter("game_dir");
          try {
               File fHandle = new File(gameDir+"game.sgm");
               Scanner fScanner = new Scanner(fHandle);
               while(fScanner.hasNextLine()) {
                    SGM.add(fScanner.nextLine());
               //System.out.println(SGM.get(0));
          } catch(Exception e) {
               System.out.println("Applet threw error: "+e);
...The problem is with File fHandle = new File(gameDir+"game.sgm"); I tried putting File(gameDir+"/game.sgm"); and appending / to the folder in the <PARAM> tag, but it still changes it to \, which means I can only run it locally, and in Windows. Why is it doing this, and how can I fix it?

Answer 1

This file you were hoping to load: it's on the server, right? Not on the computer where the applet is running in a browser?
(At least that's a common mistake made by people when they write their first applet.)
If that's the case then you can't use a File object to access a file on a different computer. To access a file on the server, first you will have to put the file in a place on the server where it can be downloaded. Then in your applet you need to get a URL for the file. (The getDocumentBase() method can be used to prevent you from having to hard-code the full URL for the file.) Next, "this.getClass().getResourceAsStream(URL)" gets you an InputStream from which you can read the data from the file.