How to build graphical-interactive applet?

Question

I wonder how to build an interactive browser application, and wether java-applet is the right technology for the following:

• the user should have some kind of plate where he can create/drag/connect objects

• the objects will be kind of a state-machine, where each object can be connected to another, can have a defined state, and can change it's state on predinited actions. Or moreover, the user should be able to define these actions.

• the objects should not look like the old-fashioned java Swing/AWT elements. I would like to have some nice-looking standard-elements like circles, reagtangles, arrows, lines etc that fit nicely in the present webarea.

So: the whole plate must be interactive, and also the elements on it. How can I best build these kind of application? Which technology/framework/libraries should I not miss to look at?

Many thanks!

Answer 1

It's possible to do it with Java, but keep in mind that the trend has for a long time now been to move away from applets. Many browsers (e.g., iOS and currently Chrome on Mac) won't run Java at all. And many more disable it by default.

Your best option is HTML5/JavaScript. Have a look at the HTML5 Canvas element. With it you can draw your shapes and then manage user interaction with JavaScript.