Question

An example:

getAppletContext().showDocument(
  new URL("javascript:alert(document.getElementById('textbox').value);"
));

Instead of alerting this textbox value, I want to use this value further as string variable in my applet program. How can i achieve this?

Answer 1

Multiple ideas for different approaches. Here are some:

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Put the input-field in the Applet. Instead of adding an <input>-tag to the HTML-page, you can get input in the Applet by adding AWT components (or, when using a JApplet you can use the newer Swing toolkit) to it. Although Swing should be preferred.

Of course, if you can’t change the applet-code, this is not an option.

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Use the <param>-tag. You can give your applet some initial values (e.g. parameters), by using the <param>-tag in the <applet>-tag as shown by this example from the tag-doc:

<applet code="A21" width="256" height="256" archive="toir.jar">
  <param name="img" value="test.gif">
</applet>

However, as I said, these are initial values. If you change them while the applet is already running, they won’t change in the Applet itself.

So, if the values in your <input>-tag are for initial values, you can use this (and manipulate the value-attribute with JS). If you want to change the values while the applet is running, this only works if you restart the applet (which might not be the best idea).

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Use “Java-to-Javascript Communication”. There is a certain document introducing the JSObject-class. It can be found here. There is also the “Common DOM API” which can be used to access the DOM-structure of the HTML-page. It sounds like what you’re searching for, but it seems a little outdated.

Als, this seems to be no standard (just like the <applet>-tag) and therefor, some browsers might not or not completely implement support for that. You’ll have to try it out.