Appleteer - applet test tool

Never fear, Appleteer is here!

Appleteer is an applet testing tool that is superior to Sun's own AppletViewer in a number of key ways.

• Appleteer feature list
• Running Appleteer
  • Applet
  • Application
  • Webstart Application
• Related Links
• Download Appleteer
• Version History
• Applet Environment Comparison
  • Notes
• Test Applet Pages
• To Do
• Menus of the 1.6 AppletViewer

Appleteer feature list

• Loads applet web pages in an applet enabled JEditorPane.
• Supports multiple applets on the same page, along with applet communication/object sharing & the 1.4+ InputStream sharing mechanism.
• Supports the applet showDocument()/showStatus methods.
• Helps avoid applet class caching.
• Allows inspection of
  • The getAppletInfo() & getParameterInfo() defined for the applet.
  • Parameters requested by applet code. Very handy for poorly documented applets!
• Can provide easy access to the following information.
  • Split output and error streams,
  • Has in-built logging, and all applet logs to the anonymous logger are added to the main log. Along with easy configuration of..
    • Log level.
    • Log history length.
  • Applet lifecycle Throwables logged.

Running Appleteer

The Appleteer test tool can be used as an applet or application.

Applet

To use Appleteer as an applet, visit the form to provide a starting URL or File, choose the other startup parameters, then click View Applet Page to see the page displayed in the Appleteer GUI.

Application

To use Appleteer as an application:

• Download the latest distributable.
• Expand the Zip archive to a convenient location.
• Navigate to Appleteer/lib/ and double click the appleteer.jar.

The application form of Appleteer can also be invoked from the command line:

• java -jar appleteer.jar http:/url.of/applet.html
  Single argument of one URL.
• java -jar appleteer.jar -open F:/test/applet.html
  Two arguments, the second of which is a file path/name.

Webstart Application

Launch Appleteer

If you associate .applet.html with Appleteer, you can also double click any.applet.html to have it open in Appleteer.

Related Links

• Appleteer help - help files for both the Appleteer applet and application.
• Applet configuration form - to determine the starting page, and other options.
• appleteer-09.06.14.zip The binaries and support pages.

Download Appleteer

Appleteer is available for download as appleteer-09.06.14.zip (114925 bytes).

Version History

Appleteer is versioned by the build date, which is added as a suffix to the download file. This date is also added into the manifest file and is shown (and logged) at runtime when the user selects the About Appleteer menu item. Please ensure you are using the latest version of Appleteer before reporting bugs!

• appleteer-09.06.14 (114925 bytes)
  • Added a listener for the URL to be loaded in the JEditorPane, which enabled the code to do a series of actions that were formally done as soon as the call to setPage(URL) returned, or left to the end-user. This change resulted in:
    • Progress bar remains indeterminate until page and applets are fully loaded.
    • Made the inter-applet comms. functionality practical.
    • Allows applet 'auto-start'.
  • Added support for inter-applet Object sharing.
  • Added test applets.
  • Implemented InputStream size limits (64Kb) for the ApplicationAppletContext.setStream(String,InputStream) method.
  • Fixed the problem of the applet writing over GUI components for a JApplet, by adding the rootpane of the applet, rather than the applet itself. This will not work for an java.applet.Applet or for any JApplet that overrides paint(Graphics). The latter are still added directly to the parent container.
  • Logging
    • GUI
      • Swapped the log levels list for a combo box to save screen acreage.
      • Added button to Log Settings panel to Clear log in place of log label.
      • Log label removed, messages instead sent to the status line.
    • Other
      • Applet messages to the anonymous logger now added to the main log.
      • Altered the ListLogHandler to force the Source Method Name/Class to be filled in, for all log record levels. It seems that by default, the higher levels will produce a source, but not the lower levels (e.g. FINEST). Perhaps this is for performance reasons, but since this is a development tool, we feel it is best to show the source of all logging events, no matter how trivial.
      • Changed the start-up log level from FINEST to CONFIG, to match default GUI setting.
      • Appleteer debug calls to System.out redirected to log as FINEST messages.
  • Controls added to enable optimizing the Text Report.
  • A few tweaks to the frame location and size.
  • Added the parameter values to the AppletInformationPanel.
  • Changed the Implementation-Vendor field seen in the Text Report from the generic Example.com - Anyone to PSCode - Andrew Thompson.
• appleteer-08.12.16.zip (102338 bytes) A few tweaks..
  • Added Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler to allow most* other exceptions to be detected and logged. * The code iterates the Threads every ¼ second - a Thread might be missed if it starts and causes Exceptions entirely within that timing window.
  • Expanded the Text Report to include the Appleteer version and date, and the URL of the HTML.
  • Applet
    • Added link back to home page, to menu bar.
    • Added support for 'file' parameter.
  • Support pages
    • Added Running Appleteer anchor link to page section list in index.html.
• appleteer-08.12.15.zip (149293 bytes) - First release of Appleteer. Announced on the comp.lang.java.programmer/help/gui usenet newsgroups on the Release: Appleteer - applet test tool thread.

Applet Environment Comparison

Notes

• Shows ClassNotFoundExceptions instead.
• When inter-applet object sharing (IAOS) is enabled using a common classloader, resource bleed is a side effect. Browsers allow IAOS using a mechanism that manages to keep applet resources separate.
• Shows documents in the JEditorPane.
• Shows documents in the single JEditorPane. The target of showDocument(url, target) is ignored.
• Browser support for showStatus(message) is not entirely reliable, since browsers usually offer an option to hide the entire 'status message' line. It is also default behaviour to remove the status message, when the browser is sent to full-screen mode.
• Browser support for showDocument() is not entirely reliable, due to pop-up blockers, script being disabled, or other factors. Calls to showDocument(url, target) are even more likely to either fail, or have the target ignored.
• Needs more testing for class caching during runs, but certainly will not cache classes between runs.
• Most modern browsers do not offer a menu item to open the console, so unless an applet fails completely (in which case you get the plug-in offering a red 'x' and 'click me for details' message), the console does not appear. Console appearance on discovering applets, has instead been moved into the Java Control Panel itself. To get it to pop open, go to the advanced tab and look for the Java console leaf, expand it and check Show console. Once the console is open and has focus:
  • type x to clear the class cache, then refresh the page with F5 to reload the applets.
  • The applet System.out and System.err can be cleared by typing c. The author generally combines clearing the class cache and clearing the old output as a matter of habit.
  So, in reality, clearing the class cache of a browser is simple, once the console is open. Of course, it can be somewhat irritating to have the console pop open for random web pages while surfing the net, but then, that is why they pay us the 'big bucks'. ;-)
• At least, not until the J2SE JEditorPane supports JavaScript, which I suspect will be - never.

Test Applet Pages

To Do

• Security levels. Add applet 'Add SecurityManager' checkbox?
• Further testing on class caching.
• Further testing on page transition.
• Tidy code enough to open source.
• Support pages. Release 3.
• Add Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler.uncaughtException(Thread t,Throwable e) Added to version 08.12.16.
• Add file parameter to Appleteer applet. Added to version 08.12.16.
• Add link label to home page for Appleteer applet. Added to version 08.12.16.
• Implement stream limits. Release 3.
• try/catch around applet lifecycle calls.
• Implement applet auto start(). Release 3.
• Resolve the inter applet communication bug. Release 3.
• Fix problems with rendering (applet appears on top of menus). Release 3 has a fix that works for JApplets that do not override paint(Graphics). The other kinds of applets are not worth bothering too much about.

Menus of the 1.6 AppletViewer

The Java 1.6 AppletViewer offers the following menu items:

• Applet actions
  • Restart
  • Reload
  • Stop
  • Save
  • Start
  • Clone
• Information
  • Tag
  • Info
  • Edit
  • Character Encoding
• Print
  • Print
• Applet Properties
  • Properties. Configuration dialog for Proxy server and port, as well as the security level Class access: restricted/unrestricted. The Class access: combo. setting seems to have zero effect.
• Applet viewer actions
  • Close
  • Quit