Web Browser Control in Java? - java

I come from a C# background. We have something called a WebBrowser control that can load HTML Pages and interact with Javascript using C#.
I would like to interact with an HTML / Javascript page using Java. Are there any well known WebBrowser controls/objects or libraries for Java?

https://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/webview/jfxpub-webview.htm
I think this is the widget you're looking for. From the official JavaFX website.

There are many options including commercial and open-source solutions.
JavaFX
JavaFX is available in Java 8-10. It provides the WebView control that you can embed into your JavaFX application to display HTML and web pages. It's based on WebKit and renders HTML off-screen using Java Graphics API. It's lightweight. In Java 11 JavaFX is no longer available. It was extracted into a separate project — OpenJFX.
Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
JxBrowser
It's a commercial library. It provides the BrowserView controls for Swing, JavaFX, SWT. It's based on Chromium, so the modern web pages look exactly as in Google Chrome. It supports two rendering modes: off-screen (lightweight) and hardware accelerated (GPU-accelerated, heavyweight).
Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Linux 64-bit ARM.
JCEF
It's an open-source library that represents Java port for CEF (C/C++). As far as I know it supports only Swing. It's based on Chromium, so the modern web pages look exactly as in Google Chrome.
Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
What's the difference?
In 2018 Sebastian Barth compared different Java libraries including JavaFX, JCEF, JxBrowser etc. and shared the results in the Browser Integration in Java Applications article.

One more option - https://github.com/shannah/webviewjar - very thin library, leverages the OS-built in browser, so the entire library is less than 1mb - and that's with macOS, Windows, and Linux native shims all in one jar.

Related

How to add Java Applet to HTML file?

I have made and compiled a Java applet and run it using java appletviewer. It is running fine as expected. But I am not able to run it usingany web browser like chrome or internet explorer even after enabling java. I have viewed lots of pages and forums with people facing the same problem with no use. My html code is:
`<html>
<head>
<title> Calculator </title>
<!--<meta name="discription" content="MultiPurpose Calculator">
<meta name="keywords" content="standard calculator;scientific calculator;loan calculator;calculator;applet">-->
</head>
<Applet code="cal3.class" width=500 height=600>
</Applet>
</html>`
cal3 is the name of the compiled java class. Thank you in advance!!
tl;dr
Wrap your Java applet in a JNLP file to be served as a Java Web Start app.
Oracle no longer supports Java Applet technology
Oracle officially deprecated the Applet API in JEP 289 for Java 9. The appletviewer tool is also deprecated. These are not marked for deletion in the next version after Java 9, but may go away in later versions.
Browsers no longer support Java Applet
Embedding Java Applets within web browsers has proven to be an insoluble security problem. The industry has given up on trying to make this work. Ditto for Flash and Silverlight.
Google Chrome browser no longer supports the NPAPI plugin architecture, and therefore no longer supports Java Applet technology.
Microsoft Edge web browser does not support plugins such as that needed for Java Applet.
Mozilla Firefox browser dropped support for the NPAPI plugin architecture, and therefore Java Applet, in version 52 and later. See this Question on SuperUser.StackExchange.com. For older versions, Mozilla gives instructions on how to disable Java Applet.
Apple has been taking steps to phase out Java Applet support for years. This includes giving directions to disable the necessary plugin, as well as defaulting to disabling, and later omitting, the necessary plugin. Now Safari 11 has no direct support, though you might get it to work by mimicking a Microsoft Internet Explorer browser as described here.
And speaking of Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers, you might be able to get Java Applet to work. Try these instructions. I do not recommend doing so.
Java Web Start
I do not recommend using Java Applets.
Instead, learn about Java Web Start technology. You get the convenience of obtaining and launching Java apps via the web browser, but the actual app runs as a separate local app on the user’s machine rather than inside the browser.
For security, they run by default in the same kind of limited “sandbox” as Java Applets. This sandbox restricts access to the various features of the host OS and hardware. You can take measures to relax the security restrictions, as appropriate to the needs of your app.
Wrap your applet
You can even wrap an existing Java Applet in a jar file with a JNLP file to deploy as a Java Web Start app.
Oracle and the Java community continue to actively support and advance Java Web Start, including an update to the JNLP spec in 2017-09.
Your code is okay the problem is on he browser. Most browsers now days are ending support for java. Browsers don't allow and don't support java code to run, like running applets on the browser. The good old days of java code on browser has come to an end. Newer version and updates of HTML are killing java same they did with flashplayer.
Maybe Internet Explorer might be a good option in this case.

Are applets dead?

A long time ago I made an applet, when I tried to a open it few days ago in website and it says that there is a security problem and it can not open it.
I Googled it and saw that I need to register it.
I tried to register it but nothing helped.
Can you explain what could make this problem?
The applet is fine and working when I run it from eclipse.
With recent updates to Java, security is much more strict. Your applet needs to be running the same java version and have a certificate. It's a very strict system...I can't open many java applets myself.
To make it run as an exception, copy the URL that the applet is on. Then open up your Java Control Panel, go to the Security Tab, and at the bottom hit Edit Site List at the bottom. From there, hit Add and paste in your link.
That'll allow it to run as an exception.
tl;dr
Java Applets are gone. You can modify your applet to run as a local app instead.
Today you can build local GUI apps in Java using your choice of three frameworks:
Swing (now in maintenance mode)
JavaFX (actively developed, led by Oracle and Gluon)
SWT (developed by the Eclipse Foundation)
For remote apps written in pure Java but delivered to users as a web app, see Vaadin Flow.
Yes, Java Applets are dead
Oracle has deprecated Java Applet technology, having proven too difficult to integrate securely into web browsers.
All the major web browser makers (Mozilla, Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc.) have phased out support for Java Applets.
Long live Java GUI apps
See white paper by Oracle, Java Client Roadmap Update, 2020-05.
Oracle’s vision for local Java GUI apps is for the developer to deliver a "double-clickable" app bundled with its own JVM slimmed down to include only needed parts. Modern tooling includes jlink and jpackage. Oracle no longer sees Java being generally bundled with operating systems, nor generally being installed by users.
While Java Applets are dead, Swing is still maintained as a required part of every Java implementation. People continue to write Swing apps for use on a local computer. You just cannot run a Swing app within a browser any longer. If you have source code for a Swing-based Applet, you can easily modify it to run as a local Swing app.
Swing’s replacement, JavaFX, is under very active development in the open-source project OpenJFX, a subproject hosted on the OpenJDK project. Releases arrive every six months, around the same time as Java releases.
The Eclipse Foundation continues to offer Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) as a third platform (besides Swing & JavaFX) for writing Java GUI apps on a local computer.
For an open-source implementation of Java Web Start, see OpenWebStart. Oracle has dropped support for the technology, but others continue to find it a handy way to deliver and launch local Java desktop apps.
If you want to write web apps in pure Java using a Swing/JavaFX style of coding, see Vaadin Flow. Your app executes server-side in a JVM while the user-interface is automatically rendered remotely in the web browser by way of standard web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript/ECMAScript/TypeScript, Web Components).

How portable is JavaFx 2.0 on the client side of a web application (and is it efficient)?

If I am getting it right from what I am reading, JavaFX 2.0 allows you to code all your logic using Java and design screens with FXML. Then, web apps run as an applet on the client side.
But:
Are all browsers and mobiles devices capable of running applets?
Is it efficient (i.e., nice user experience)?
In other words, how portable are JavaFx 2.0 web applications on the client side? Anyone has experience to share?
From How to run Applets on Android?, it seems like android is not capable of running applets.
So, it seems like JavaFX 2.0 is ok on most browsers, but not for portable devices such as smartphones.
JavaFX produces Java applets. So what I say here applies for Java applets.
Most browsers for desktop machines are Java compatible: IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera on Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris. For smartphones, it seems a lot more complicated. I think it must be a definitive no for iOS, Blackberry and Android. For Windows Phone, it might be possible, but probably too complicated for the mainstream user.
Efficient is a broad idea. It has advantages (performance once started, openess to the rich Java ecosystem) and drawbacks (time to startup, size, all applets running in the same JVM instance). Java 7 improves the experience, as you can read here: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/java/javaclient-484666.html
JavaFX applications can be packaged in a numerous amount of ways. They can run as applets in a web page, they can be launched through java web start, they can even be distributed as os native applications. So yes, JavaFX is as portable as portable can be. Other people in this thread has already talked about JavaFX applets, which is what governs your question. So I shall not elaborate on that. However, I feel you might have missed the fact that JavaFX clients must not only be distributed as an applet in a browser in order to talk to the back end. Indeed I would not even consider that as an alternative, judging by my own past experience of applets and how ugly they look in the context of a web page.
As an alternative to applets, you can write a JavaFX stand alone application who talks to the back end using a SOAP- or REST based web service. Internet is full of these examples. Moreover, you can have the application be launched through Java Web Start and do dependency injection to get hold of proxy objects to resources on the server. This last part is not talked about by blog posters and Oracle articles. Indeed I haven't found a standardized way of doing that. But if you package a regular Java SE application in a EAR package you can inject resources in this application's Main class and let the thread startup a new JavaFX application and forward those resources. Here is a tutorial I wrote that takes you through the entire process:
http://blog.martinandersson.com/the-enterprise-side-of-javafx-the-missing-part/

how to run a java applet in web browser

I have a java SE project or you can say applet, but i want to run this applet in web browser how is it possible?
I need to copy jar file something like this i came to know but what is the possible solution?
This tutorial pretty much covers everything from writing your applet to embedding it on your web page. If you already have your applet done, as it seems, scroll down to "Invoking an applet". Here's the code from the tutorial for a quick solution:
<html>
<title>The Hello, World Applet</title>
<hr>
<applet code="HelloWorldApplet.class" width="320" height="120">
If your browser was Java-enabled, a "Hello, World"
message would appear here.
</applet>
<hr>
</html>
Most modern browsers no longer support Java.
In September 2015, Google decided to remove the support for Java in their Chrome web browser. The Java plugin is based on an old API called Netscape Plugin API that has always had security issues. Google felt that it was time for them to let go of this old technology and make the Web move on to newer and safer technologies like HTML5. When you visit a website or web service that is using Java, you now see a message that says: "The Chrome browser does not support NPAPI plug-ins and therefore will not run all Java content. Switch to a different browser (Internet Explorer or Safari on Mac) to run the Java plug-in."
The Java plug-in for web browsers relies on the cross platform plugin architecture NPAPI, which has been supported by all major web browsers for over a decade. Google's Chrome version 45 (released in September 2015) dropped support for NPAPI, impacting plugins for Silverlight, Java, Facebook Video and other similar NPAPI based plugins. Java applications are now offered though web browsers as either a web start application (which do not interact with the browser once they are launched) or as a Java applet (which might interact with the browser). This change does not affect Web Start applications, it only impacts applets.
If you have problems accessing Java applications using Chrome, Oracle recommends using Internet Explorer or Safari instead.
Developers and System administrators looking for alternative ways to support users of Chrome should see this blog regarding Launching Web Start applications.

frontend application in java

can we develop java frontend application just like we do in WPF? that runs on windows platform?
Of course, just use Swing or SWT.
of course you can use java also for frontend applications, those applications will require the java VM and will probably run in some platforms not only windows, this in general then depends on the details of your specific application.
Said so, I am not aware of libraries available in the Java world which would let you compose rich and advanced user interface like you can do with WPF.
Of course, Java can be used to create front-end applications that run not only on Windows, but on any operating system that has Java installed on it.
To create front-end GUIs, you could use either AWT(very old, not recommended), Swing or SWT(the latest addition to the Java GUI library by IBM).
XUI is an XML-based frontend development toolset for Java.
If you're looking for a ClickOnce equivalent, Java Web Start would be appropriate.
There are several GUI toolkits out there (as already mentioned by others), but they only provide the basic building blocks. (WPF also falls in this category, AFAIK.)
I recommend to build GUI application on top of a modular Rich Client Platform (RCP) such as the NetBeans Platform (Swing-based) or Eclipse RCP (SWT-based).
Here some links for the NetBeans Platform:
http://platform.netbeans.org/
http://netbeans.org/features/platform/features.html
http://netbeans.org/features/platform/all-docs.html
There´s a technology for desktop frontends from ADOBE called Adobe AIR.
It´s similar to WPF (it uses a variation of XML, in this case MXML), and has several rich components and effects!
Try it out at http://get.adobe.com/air/

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