Step by Step Instructions for Creating Your First Applet in NetBeans 7.2

 

  1. Choose File /  New Project. Under Categories, select Java.  Under Projects, select Java Class Library. Click Next.
  2. Under Project Name, enter the name of your application.  Change the Project Location to any folder on your computer.
  3. Click Finish. The IDE creates the project folder.
  4. Right-click the project node in the Projects window or  Files window and select New > Other. Under Categories, select Swing GUI Forms. Under File Types, select JApplet Form. Click Next.
  5. Under Class Name, enter the name of your applet. Leave Package blank for now (default package).
  6. Click Finish. The IDE creates the applet in the specified package. The applet opens in the Source editor.
  7. IMPORTANT: Right click your applet's background panel (not on any component or embedded panel) and choose "Set Layout..." on the pop-up menu, then select "Absolute Layout".
  8. Add several components (click component, click on design panel; OR right-click on design panel and choose Add From Palette).
  9. Repeat step 7 as necessary (see below for instructions for specific components).
  10. To Run - Right click on Projects.../<appletname>.java  select Run File (or SHIFT-F6)

Step by Step Instructions for Posting Your First Applet to the Web

1.      Create JAR File:

    1. Right click the project node in the Projects window and choose Clean and Build from the contextual menu.
  1. Create HTML File (Only needs to be uploaded once since the JAR file contains the “actual” project)
    1. Right click on Projects.../<appletname>.java  select Run File (or SHIFT-F6)
    2. Edit automatically generated HTML test file (should be in <projdir>\build\<projname>.html) as followed:

1.      remove 'codebase="..."' property in APPLET tag

2.      add 'archive="<projname>.jar"' property to APPLET tag

      1. (NOTE: Every time do a Clean and Build this file will be deleted, and every time you run the project it will be recreated!)
    1. Copy JAR file (should be in <projdir>\dist\<projname>.jar)  and edited html to web server

Component-specific Instructions

 

to add icon images to buttons or labels (to get automatically bundled in the JAR file)

1.      Copy GIF or JPG to \src directory.

2.      Select icon... property of component.

3.      Click the downward arrow following the “icon” property, and select the desired image from the pull-down menu.

 

to populate a JComboBox

1.      First add the combo box to the panel. Then edit the 'model' property.

 

to add a Menu

1.      First add a MenuBar to the JApplet.

2.      Right click on the JMenuBar object in the Inspector, and select Add Menu (to add another menu.

3.   To add items to a menu, expland the JMenuBar object in the Inpector, right click on the JMenu, choose Add From Palette > Menu Item

 

to add a nested JPanel

1.      Add the Panel to Display.

2.      Add contained components. Note that the Panel will appear very small until you start adding things into it.