Do you do custom/contract work? Can you modify one of your applets for me?
I do contract work, but not for free. I try to make the applets that are available for download as flexible as possible so that they might meet the needs of most casual users. If you would like to talk to me about customizing one of the existing applets or creating a brand new applet/program for your (or your company's) pages, please consult my Contracting/Consulting page. Past clients for my work include The LEGO Company, CNET, Macromedia, ZDNet, New Line Cinema, and Sun Microsystems.
Are these applets free?
The compiled applets are free for use on personal or commercial webpages. You may use the '.class' files to implement the applets on your own pages (and customize them according to the parameters). The compiled '.class' files for a particular applet are obtained by clicking on the TAR file link that is available on each description page for an applet. Note that while the applets are free for personal or commercial use, if you or your company feel inclined to do so, you are welcome to reimburse me for prominent use of my applets. Contact me about this and we can discuss appropriate fees.
Also note that in some of the demonstrations of my applets I use images which have copyrights held by separate entities. If you use the applets for yourself (especially for commercial purposes, you should replace such images with restriction free material.
How do I embed an applet into a webpage?
To put one of the applets from The Applet Depot onto one of your own webpages, you should follow these steps:
- Download the appropriate TAR file from the webpage that describes the particular applet you want. Each description page has such a link, and the TAR file contains the '.class' files that you need.
- unTAR the '.tar' file that you downloaded. Another question/answer discusses how to unTAR the file if you are uncertain.
- Put the files you extracted from the '.tar' file (they should all be '.class' files) into the same directory/folder as the webpage you are writing (unless you use the codebase tag below).
- In the actual HTML of the webpage you must include a set of <applet></applet> tag. You can look at the source of the description page to see a basic example. The applet tag MUST include attributes for code= (which points to the main applet class file -- ending in ____ech.class), width=, height=. Other attributes are optional, including:
- align=
- alt=
- codebase= Use this tag ONLY if you want to put the '.class' files in a directory other than that which houses the webpage. This value should indicate the directory path to whatever folder you want to hold the '.class' files.
- archive= You may, if you want, archive all the '.class' files into a single '.zip' or .'jar' file in an attempt to speed up the applet's download for users (I use '.jar' files). This is NOT NECESSARY, though, and if you do not want to fool with it, LEAVE THIS ATTRIBUTE OUT of the HTML code. More information about the '.jar' format may be found at Sun Microsystem's Java pages.
Between the basic applet tags, you will want to include various <param> tags so that the applet can be customized for your pages with your own images or sound files or whatever. Two of the parameter tags ARE NECESSARY: The AUTHOR parameter and the COPYRIGHT parameter. None of the applets will work correctly if you do not include these parameters in each applet from The Applet Depot (and if you do not include the exact value for the parameter as indicated on the appropriate applet description page).
Many of the parameter tags let you refernce image files or sound files that are also on your web server. If you don't want to include a particular image or sound in your implementation of an applet, OMIT the parameter completely. Any directory paths specified in image/sound parameters are assumed to either be complete URL addresses or directory paths relative to the directory holding the webpage (not necessarily the same directory holding the '.class' files).
- Finally, you may also include Alternate HTML between the applet open/close tags. This HTML will only be shown to web browsers that do not supprt Java (or to browsers in which Java capability has be de-activated).
All of this said, your HTML code will look something like this (though you might leave out codebase, archive, and such):
<applet code=______.class width=___ height=____ codebase=____ archive=____>
<param name=AUTHOR value="Eric Harshbarger, http://www.ericharshbarger.org">
<param name=COPYRIGHT value=...>
...
ALTERNATE HTML BETWEEN APPLET TAGS
</applet>
How do I unTAR your applets?
Each applet page should have a link to a TAR file which you should be able to click on and download through the browser (you might try SHIFT-clicking). TAR files may be 'unTARred' using many publicly available programs (or, in Unix, just use the 'tar' command: tar -xvf FileName.tar). I believe WinZip (version 6.1+) handles TAR files in addition to .zip files. There is also a Mac program available to unTAR files.
Do you write/code JavaScript?
No. For those who do not realize it: Java and JavaScript are two very different things (despite their horribly similar names). I do not do any professional work in JavaScript, only Java. Furthermore, if you use any of the Applet Depot's applets on your webpages, you should tell visitors that they need a Java enabled browser (not a JavaScript enabled browser).