CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javainternet-explorerapplet
Andrew Thompson
Andrew Thompson

Reputation: 168825

How to enable MSIE8 in 'Default Java for browsers'?

I'm using IE 8.0.7600.16385 for testing (the default browser is FF) an applet.

The applet is part of a project to deliver music off CD & DVD (it is an MP3 player).

It was working around a month ago (or so), but when the page is loaded from local disk now, it does not pop the Java Console (which is configured to open automatically for applets and JWS apps.), & does not load the applet. Instead it puts a little icon in the upper left of the space the applet should be that looks like below (the red arrow points to the icon).

Missing applet icon

Clicking the icon and everywhere else around the applet space produced no further information.

After trawling through the IE options, particularly under the Security, Content & Advanced tabs and setting all the options I thought might help (to no avail), I opened the Java Control Panel to see..

Default Java for browsers listing in JCP

So it seems that something in Java itself is stopping IE from loading applets.

How do I reconfigure Java to enable the IE listing under 'Default Java for browsers'?

Update 1

IE will happily load the applet shown at Property Probe (a sand-boxed applet on my site). While another tab of the browser will fail to (attempt to load and) render the applet off the local file system. I am tending towards putting this down to something that changed in IE, though I cannot see how it could have changed between the old and recent tests. The JCP is still showing the IE entry grayed out, which suggests that is its way of indicating that IE is not the default browser (?).

I also noticed that a similar version of IE on the Netbook fails to load the applet off disk with the same symptoms. :(

Update 2

The problem applet is load into a frame (yeah sure, 'ick frames!' get over it) using deployJava.js - a script supplied by Oracle to do version checking before running an applet.

A plain applet in unframed HTML will load just fine off the local file system. I'll do further tests to narrow it down to the 'frames' or the script. But I am betting it will be the script that triggers this behavior.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2536

Answers (1)

Andrew Thompson
Andrew Thompson

Reputation: 168825

deployJava.js is the deciding factor. An applet in:

  • framed HTML
  • loaded off the local file system

..works in IE8 - unless it is

  • embedded using the script.

Since I have other ways to do what was needed from the script (plug-in version checking), I'll remove the script and use the alternate method.

And to answer the question as to why the behavior in IE 8 changed. Last time it was tested in IE, the applet element was hard coded in the HTML, no script or version checking used. :P

Upvotes: 1

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