I have an internal web application and I want to be able to take a screenshot of the user's entire desktop environment through the app, not just the browser window. In my research, I've found that I could do this using a Java applet. However, Java applets are no longer supported in Chrome as of v45, and they tend to be slow and dated. I've explored the possibility of using flash or a browser extension, but it appears that I would only be able to capture the browser window through these means. I'd prefer not to use a native application, as the screen capture is to be a feature of the web app, so I'd like to keep them as tightly coupled as possible.
Specifically, are there any other methods that I am missing to achieve what I'd like to do? I've sort of resided myself to a java applet sans chrome support or a separate native app, but I've had trouble finding literature online about my use case (assumably due to the security concerns).
I'm looking for some ideas on the general architecture for creating a Windows application (I'm open to suggestions: Java, C++, C# and also for frameworks) in which I can show another application running inside of it. Very similar to the iframe concept, where a web page is rendered within the frame.
I think I would need to instal the framed application as part of a custom installer, or even assume it is preinstalled in the OS. The important part initially is to be able to framed a graphical application inside another.
i need to develop in java an application that accesses local resources, mainly a webcam, and possibly a wacom bamboo pen tablet. It should take pictures and notes and then post them to a web server.
The ways i can think of are:
use applets
use some kind of standalone app created via JavaFx (or swing or similar)
Which way would you go about it? Are applets considered a viable/secure way to achieve this?
Thanks
I would go the standalone app route. I always turn Java off in my browsers because I can never remember which specific version has security bugs.
If you build it as a desktop app I think you could quite easily convert it to be an applet later on if you wanted.
I've made an application with Java which is a game. I'm wondering if it is possible to put this game on html page or similiar in order to play it with a webbrowser. The GUI has been built with JFrame, JPanel etc etc.
The easiest way would be to use Applets:
An applet is a program written in the Java programming language that
can be included in an HTML page, much in the same way an image is
included in a page.
Yes indeed. Applet is the first choice.
Another option is "Java Network Launch Protocol" (JNLP) but note the games won't be embedded in the web page, it will be launched as it is a shortcut on you desktop.
You might be interested in
Swingweb (open source)
Ajaxswing (commercial)
Which should mean your clients won't need a jvm.
I disagree with the first two replies that suggest applets should be the first choice. I can only assume that neither poster has much experience at deploying applets to people coming from the World Wild Web. Applets are a PITA at the best of times.
Instead, focus on Java Web Start which can launch the existing JFrame based game from a link. It might require as little as creating a single launch file (JNLP) for the app. and linking to that.
As to embedding the game into a browser window, consider this. What exactly does the browser window wrapper do for the game? What does it add to the game? If the answer is 'nothing', then definitely go for JWS.
I have seen a lot of people try to make a web ui looks like a desktop ui. However, most of the time i feel web ui is much more interesting than the desktop ui, with the help of javascript toolkit like jquery, gwt-ext etc.
My question is, how to port the web ui to desktop ui? Do I need to embed a javascript engine in java? css engine? html layout engine? That sounds like a lot of work to do.
Any easy way of doing this?
you can embed a web server in your app and you can embed a browser inside your app window. i know eclipse does this pretty well. it uses SWT to do the heavy lifting
http://www.eclipse.org/swt/snippets/#browser
check the Browser section
your web server doesnt even have to be a proper web server, it just has to set the content, and can query / change it on the fly. the javascript on the page can even interact directly with your app.
you should be even able to use crazy web frameworks like
http://echo.nextapp.com/site/
or
http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/
or even run a ruby site through JRUBY
or make really complex apps using the new HTML5 engine [canvas/video tags] (if your client has the new mozilla installed)
Adobe AIR technology solves this exact problem. The code you develop using Flex can be rendered in the Flash player plugin of a browser or the same code can be easily packaged as a Desktop application that runs on the AIR runtime.
Have you seen Appcelerator's Titanium Desktop
This is one of the best solution for you (i think!)
You write the javascript and html code, and the titanium SDK creates the Desktop application of the same
There is support for Python and Ruby.
Must try :
http://www.appcelerator.com/products/titanium-desktop/
if you are a Ruby programmer then you must also see this
http://www.rubyinside.com/bowline-rails-for-the-desktop-2183.html
Prism from Mozilla is made for this goal, exactly. It's out of beta now too, I believe.
Check Google Gears y Adobe AIR
It not 'a lot of work to do', it's a huge amount of work to do - you would in effect be writing you own browser and it'd never come close to the poplar ones out there, simply because you wouldn't get the level of feedback something like Firefox gets.
If you're trying to avoid address bars, menu bars, etc these can be switched off in all the popular browsers and so to the user the appearance would be that it's more application like with only the rich content of the HTML visible.
Sounds like JavaFX would be good for you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javafx
Try XULRunner from Mozilla. If you have developed extensions for Firefox, then this is the exact same thing. XULRunner contains the Gecko engine, so it can render XUL and HTML with CSS, and it supports JavaScript with many useful XUL Components, like file read and write, directory browser and network tools.
Because it supports HTML you can in effect make a webpage and have it run like an application. Also it is cross platform, so it will run on Windows, Mac and Linux, anywhere Firefox runs actually.
There is some information on creating XULRunner applications on the net, but since it's so similar to making Firefox Extensions, you can just google for that. A good Tutorial for getting started is this one.