I am weighing using an ActiveX control vs. a Java Applet for my web page. One factor is download time. If I install an ActiveX control on the client's PC, then it is there and won't need to be downloaded again. It looks to me like a Java Applet will be downloaded every time the user visits my web page. Is that correct? Will the browser cache the applet and only redownload it if it has changed?
Thanks
-Sam
Ulf Dittmer
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Joined: Mar 22, 2005
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The jar files that make up an applet will be cached by the browser. The user has the option of turning this off (in the Java Plugin control panel) but caching is on by default, and most users probably never venture into that control panel to change things.
The browser just checks if the date of the jar file has changed; if it hasn't, then it's not downloaded again.
Thanks for the answer. Since you did not mention it, I take it there is no way to install an applet on the client machine, so even if the user had browser caching turned off, the browser would find and use the installed applet.
-Sam
Ulf Dittmer
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Correct.
Ernest Friedman-Hill
author and iconoclast
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Samuel Quiring wrote:Thanks for the answer. Since you did not mention it, I take it there is no way to install an applet on the client machine, so even if the user had browser caching turned off, the browser would find and use the installed applet.
-Sam
You might want to look into "Java Web Start", which exists to solve the problems you describe.
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