Java applets and applications

An applet is a Java™ program designed to be included in an HTML Web document. You can write your Java applet and include it in an HTML page, much in the same way an image is included. When you use a Java-enabled browser to view an HTML page that contains an applet, the applet's code is transferred to your system and is run by the browser's Java virtual machine.

The HTML document contains tags, which specify the name of the Java applet and its Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The URL is the location at which the applet bytecodes reside on the Internet. When an HTML document containing a Java applet tag is displayed, a Java-enabled Web browser downloads the Java bytecodes from the Internet and uses the Java virtual machine to process the code from within the Web document. These Java applets are what enable Web pages to contain animated graphics or interactive content.

You can also write a Java application that does not require the use of a Web browser.

For more information, see Writing Applets, Sun Microsystems' tutorial for Java applets. It includes an overview of applets, directions for writing applets, and some common applet problems.

Applications are stand-alone programs that do not require the use of a browser. Java applications run by starting the Java interpreter from the command line and by specifying the file that contains the compiled application. Applications usually reside on the system on which they are deployed. Applications access resources on the system, and are restricted by the Java security model.