Java is a programming language developed at Sun Microsystems in 1990. It was known and became popular on the WWW because Netscape Navigator 2.0 adopted and supported Java applets in 1996.

Applets are little programs written in Java language. They are designed to run inside a web browser and to perform some tasks such as animated graphics and interactive tools.

In order to use Java applets, you need to have associate files, which are complied applet programs usually ending with .class. One applet may need one or more .class files to make it work. You can check with the sources where you obtain the applets what .class files you need.

Adding an applet to an HTML file.

The start tag is <applet> and the ending tag is </applet>.

<applet codebase=xxx code=yyy width=123 height=123>

Where xxx=the name of directory your .class file stored; yyy=name of your .class file

Below is an excerpt from Instant Java Book. The real applets composition will looks like this:

<applet code=BasicText.class width=300 height=80>

<param name=TxFont value=TimesRoman>

<param name=Text value="BasicText">

<param name=TxPointSize value=36>

<param name=TxHorizCenter value=true>

<param name=TxVertCenter value=true>

</applet>

Java Authoring Tools

Note: The description below are provided by product's vendors. We haven't test any product and couldn't guarantee that they will be as good as they said. However, alomost every products allow you to download free evaluation versions which you can try them yourself.