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Java Programming

Web Browser Components for Java? 21

Posted by Cliff from the it's-all-about-the-components dept.
coonsta queries: "Being able to embed a Web browser is critical to the success of a platform (and the browser). High Stakes, No Prisoners argues this quite eloquently. Windows has an embeddable IE (and Mozilla to boot); Linux has Mozilla; wxWindows has wxHTML; etc. But what does Java have? I can forsake cross-platform support and embed IE, but that won't interact well with Swing; I can embed Mozilla, if Webclient is ever released in a usable form (and what about OS X?); I can use a JTextPane, and forget about nice-looking pages or script; I can Runtime.exec the browser and forget about being able to control it or interact with it; I can use CalPane and forget about JavaScript; or I can buy a component from Company X-dot-com, and subsequently price the software out of the market. Do any developers know if I can have my cake and eat it to? That is, does anybody know of a cheap, cross-platform Web browser component for Java with a reasonably modern feature set?"
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Web Browser Components for Java? More

Web Browser Components for Java?

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  • Swing (Score:1)

    by ScroP ( 536977 )
    All the swing components support some version of the HTML standard. There isn't a full browser though.

    I think all that Swing is missing is a Javascript interpreter and CSS support. The CSS, and other similar web-feautres, can be added by creatnig a set of UI components that render CSS correctly (just like how the swing components now support plain HTML)

    i'm sure there is some pure java, java script interfepreter somewhere - but I don't think you'll find a way to have cross-platform plugins (like for flash, etc).

    • Re:Swing (Score:3, Insightful)

      by gnovos ( 447128 )
      YUCK! Do NOT try and use Sun's HTML rendering swing components unless you don't need any more sophistication than can be provided in a slashdot comment. Once you go past bold, italics and font colors, you start seeing serious glitches in the rendering code. Like try putting INPUT tags inside of a TABLE... OUCH! IT will start placing ing INPUT tags randomly all over the screen.

      It was a nice idea, adding the HTML to the swing components, but unless they are going to actually do it right then it's useless.

    • Rhino (Score:2, Informative)

      by atomray ( 202327 )
      There is a Java JavaScript interpreter. Netscape began the project and it is still available:

      http://www.mozilla.org/rhino/

      I have experimented with it, it works well. Enjoy
  • Sun has been totally retarded in how they've handled their HotJava [sun.com] HTML Component. Guess they're worried about loosing browser marketshare to M$.

  • One of the great lost opportunities (Score:4, Insightful)

    by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Friday January 11, 2002 @11:13AM (#2823538) Homepage Journal
    Sun made many mistakes during its big Java push. One of the biggest was their failure to implement a decent HTML viewer in Java. Instead they gave us HotJava [sun.com]. A classic Java app. Trivial to port to a new OS, but utterly useless once you got it there.
  • There was a jazilla project a couple years ago. But it hasn't been active (at least not to my knowledge) for a while. And the people at javalobby were working on a whole java desktop project a while ago. They had a bunch of useful apps planned (object diagram tools, editors, etc) and I think a browser may have been one of them.
  • You could use Sun's BasicHTML [slashdot.org] or IceSoft [icesoft.no] or many others...
  • Netbeans (Sun's open source java ide) uses the icebrowser and for the most part it's pretty good.
  • Clue Browser [netcluesoft.com]
    HTMLArea Component [koala.ilog.fr]
  • The best one I have found (really the only viable one...HotJava simply sucks) is the one from IceSoft. But you included a link to that in your message.

    It's got CSS, HTML v4.0, etc etc. It seems pretty decent, but truth be told I've only used it on a little pilot project I did a while back. I never actually purchased it--just used their demo license. It seemed reasonably OK.
  • You have a programming language there at your disposal!

    If you stick to the latest HTML specs it wouldn't be that difficult of a task. You could probably even use Java's XML parser to do a lot of the work. You can have a look at Konqueror [konqueror.org] and Mozilla [mozilla.org] for some ideas on how to handle things if you are unsure of what to do.

    Of course there is always Jazilla [sourceforge.net] (Mozilla written in Java). I don't know how far along it is, but you could use it as a starting block at least.
  • Why not create an applet? that way you already have a web browser...
  • Rhino [mozilla.org] contains a Javascript API for Java.

  • Here are 2 I tried, I liked WebWindow a bit more, but IceSoft's supports more features.

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