Working with Applets I

Click here to open a new window describing the MAA Lite Applet Project and the Java applet used in the example above. If you have a slow connection it may take a few minutes for this page to load. Wait until you see a map of Afghanistan. Arrange these two windows so that they overlap and you can move back-and-forth between them by clicking on the inactive window to make it active.

This Lite Applet is called Image_and_Cursor. Like the other Lite Applets in the MAA Lite Applet collection, Image_and_Cursor is powerful and flexible and has been designed so that curriculum developers like you can use it in many different ways without knowing any Java programming. During the next two days we will see several examples showing how this applet can be used in different ways. But the most important examples will be the ones that you design.

For this first look we will show how you can use this applet with a different map. You can learn a lot about how applets are used by looking at the html source code for pages with applets. Click on the other window to make it active. Then choose Source from the broswer View menu. Notice the lines beginning <applet> and ending </applet>. These are the lines that insert this Java applet into the html page. Close the window with the source code and scroll down in the original window until you see a box with these same lines with color highlighting. Just below this box you will see three links for the files you will need to work with this applet. Click on each of these links to download the necessary files. Store them in the directory where you are developing your html pages. Print the file simplest.doc.

Now open a new html page in Dreamweaver. Go back to View Source in the other window and copy the lines between (and including) <applet> and </applet>. Copy those lines in the raw html window for your new html page above the line </body>. Save your work and then Preview it. You should see the same live map of Afghanistan. You may want to write some material using this applet as is.

Next you will customize this applet by choosing your own image and writing new curriculum material. You may use any image that is in either of the formats jpeg or gif. You can create such images yourself using a digital camera or a scanner or you may find them on the Web. If you find an image on the Web you need to be sure not to violate any copyright restrictions. Click here to open a new window with some ideas for finding maps on the Web.

Once you have found or created your own image modify your html page following the instructions in simplest.doc. Add your own prose around the live image.

Click here for another example using a Lite Applet from the MAA Lite Applet Project. The links below lead to the files you will download if you want to work with this applet.

A short description of this use of this applet.

The required jar file.

Other examples of how this applet may be used may be found using the links below:

[Example: Spring-Mass System]
[Short Description]

[Example: Predator-Prey System]
[Short Description]