New to Java (with a few questions)

[Brian W Heazeltine]

Hello, I've been wanting to learn java for a while now but never have taken the time to learn until now.

I went to the local library and checked out the book "The Java Bible" by Aaron E. Walsh. It was a lot of help and I learned a lot of usful information.
One of the things that (might have been but I don't recall) was not included was applications that interact with a webpage, Like submitting forums and logging into websites. I know the basics and I've writen about 10 small programs that just to experiment with some of java's capabilities and what nots.
I am sure that I will find some information about doing this when I search for it on the web, I was just wondering if anyone knew of a particular website that would help me learn about this.
Thanks in adv.

[Joe Ess]

Check out the Java Tutorial. Lots of good info for the beginner. For example, the chapter on applets, the java applications that run within a web browser.

[Brian W Heazeltine]

eh, from what I understood in the book applets don't let you communicate with another website. ...
Applet is on www.myapplet.com but I want to connect to www.myforum.com
Might have just misread it but I'll take a closer look.

[Joe Ess]

I misinterpreted what you are trying to do. Applications can freely access web sites via the java.net.URL and java.net.URLConnection classes. Applets run inside a "sandbox" which prevents them from gaining access to the user's computer and connecting to any server other than the one they were downloaded from. You can digitally sign an applet and it will ask the user for permission to perform usually prevented operations, like accessing another server.
Here's a tutorial on signing an applet.

[Dirk Schreckmann]

Welcome to JavaRanch, Brian!
Perhaps you're wanting to learn server side Java programming - technologies like Servlets and JSPs, which allow you to dynamically generate web content, such as what happens when I submit this post.
The third section of assignments in The JavaRanch Cattle Drive provides a nice and easy introduction to the learning Servlets. (That's how I learned it.)