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Trail: Deployment
Lesson: Applets
Section: Practical Considerations When Writing Applets
Applets
Getting Started with Applets
Importing Classes and Packages for Applets
Defining an Applet Subclass
The Life Cycle of an Applet
Methods for Milestones
Methods for Drawing and Event Handling
Methods for Adding UI Components
What Applets Can and Can't Do
Taking Advantage of the Applet API
Finding and Loading Data Files
Displaying Short Status Strings
Displaying Documents in the Browser
Sending Messages to Other Applets
Playing Sounds
Defining and Using Applet Parameters
Deciding Which Parameters to Support
Writing the Code to Support Parameters
Giving Information about Parameters
Using the APPLET Tag
Practical Considerations When Writing Applets
Security Restrictions
Creating a User Interface
Creating a GUI
Displaying Diagnostics to the Standard Output and Error Streams
Getting System Properties
Threads in Applets
Threads in Applets: Examples
Working with a Server-Side Application
A Simple Network Client Applet
Using a Server to Work Around Security Restrictions
Finishing an Applet
Before You Ship that Applet
The Perfectly Finished Applet
Deploying Applets
General Deployment Considerations
Using the applet Tag
Using the object Tag
Using the embed Tag
Deploying Applets in a Mixed-Browser Environment
Solving Common Applet Problems
Questions and Exercises
Home Page > Deployment > Applets
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Creating a User Interface

> Most applets have a graphical user interface (GUI). This is a natural consequence of the fact that each applet appears within a browser window. Because the `JApplet` class is a subclass of the `Applet`Panel class and thus participates in the AWT event and drawing model, creating an applet's GUI is just as easy as creating an application's GUI — easier, actually, since the applet's window (the browser window) already exists.

> In addition to its graphical UI, an applet can use several other UI types, depending on the kind of information it needs to give or get. Some applets play sounds, either to give the user feedback or to provide ambiance. Applets can get configuration information from the user through parameters that the applet defines. To give text information to the user, an applet can use its GUI, display a short status string (for text that's not crucial), or display to the standard output or standard error stream (for debugging purposes).

> For information about sound, parameters, and status strings, see the Taking Advantage of the Applet API section. The rest of this section discusses the following topics, as they pertain to applets:

> - Creating a GUI
> - Displaying Diagnostics to the Standard Output and Error Streams

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