Making an Applet Run a CGI Script

Problem

You want an applet to run a CGI script.

Solution

Just use showDocument( ) with the correct URL.

Discussion

It doesn’t matter what type of target your URL refers to. It can be an HTML page, a plain text file, a compressed tar file to be downloaded, a CGI script, servlet, or JavaServer Page (Chapter 18). In all cases, you simply provide the URL. The Java applet for this appears in Example 17-4.

Example 17-4. TryCGI.java 

/** 
 * Try running a CGI-BIN script from within Java. 
 */ 
public class TryCGI extends Applet implements ActionListener { 
    protected Button goButton; 
 
    public void init(  ) { 
        add(goButton = new Button("Go for it!")); 
        goButton.addActionListener(this); 
    } 
 
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) { 
        try { 
            URL myNewURL = new URL("http://server/cgi-bin/credit"); 
 
            // debug... 
            System.out.println("URL = " + myNewURL); 
 
            // "And then a miracle occurs..." 
            getAppletContext(  ).showDocument(myNewURL); 
 
        } catch (Exception err) { 
            System.err.println("Error!
            showStatus("Error, look in Java Console for details!"); 
        } 
    } 
}

Since this is an applet, it requires an HTML page to invoke it. I used the HTML shown here:

<HTML><HEAD> <TITLE>Java Applets Can Run CGI's (at least on Netscape Navigator)</TITLE> <BODY BGCOLOR="White"> <H1>Java Applets Can run CGI's (at least on Netscape Navigator)</H1> <P>Click on the button on this little Applet for p(r)oof! <APPLET CODE="TryCGI" WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=30> <P>If you can see this, you need to get a Java-powered(tm) Web Browser ...

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