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We have a client who are switching away from Windows Mobile (and IE Mobile) to Android based devices.

We have some specific software that we deploy to their WM workforce by an ActiveX applet that loads in IE Mobile, but obviously Android will have no support for ActiveX. So we will need to re-do our application to an Android-specific platform, and Java is the obvious choice for this.

Are there any Android browsers that support loading a Java Applet in-browser, in much the same way an ActiveX applet loads in IE (i.e. it fully integrates into the browsing experience).

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3 Answers

up vote 8 down vote

Similar questions have been asked here before, the short version, JAVA applets are not supported on Android. The version of JAVA used on Android is not just your run of the mill JAVA so you would need to get a JAVA compiler on the phone first to run any applets. Which I don't think is possible or at least feasible.

Why not just download the Android SDK and make your own app? You don't have to sell it in the marketplace, but if your app could be used by others you could do that which might help recover some money spent on development.

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Why not just download the Android SDK and make your own app - because our app needs to be as cross-platform as possible. It's incredibly complex and the overheads involved in translating it from a web-based app to a standalone app are phenomenal. Thanks for the heads up though. So is it absolutally impossible to embed any sort of extra functionality inside a browser? The main thing we're doing is collecting signatures, like a courier does after making a delivery. In IE this was a piece of cake with a tiny ActiveX control. – Farseeker Sep 14 '10 at 0:07
If your JAVA app existed on a website that you pointed your phone to you might be able to have the JAVA code run that way, but I still doubt it because Android OS doesn't have a native way to understand JAVA code as you and I know it. The version of JAVA on Android is modified. Your best bet would be to look into creating apps for the different platforms or using a different language such as HTML5 or flash (unsupported on non-jailbroke Apple devices). – Webs Sep 14 '10 at 12:52
Sorry for the double dip, but just so you know, making apps for Apple and Android is really easy now. They have GUI systems that can do most of the work for you. Might not be as hard as you think. I would at least investigate. – Webs Sep 14 '10 at 12:53
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As Android 2.2 and above (and some phones running Android 2.1) can run Flash applets in the browser, Flash could be a better cross-platform choice for you than Java. – GAThrawn Jan 5 '11 at 11:22
while Android's Dalvik is not bytecode-compatible with JVM's bytecode; Java code that does not use libraries that are omitted in Android (e.g. Swing/AWT) should be pretty much source compatible, therefore you'll only need to recompile and most stuffs should just work as long as it doesn't use those omitted libraries. – Lie Ryan Nov 7 '11 at 18:16
up vote 0 down vote

The closest I've found is http://www.apogee.com/products/cjre-a

Unfortunately as stated on that page:

Note that Apogee temporarily suspended further development of CJREs+A in June, 2012, because of insufficient demand for them. Please, contact Apogee if you are interested in a CJRE+A targeted at a an Android-running device of your choice for "volume" distribution to your customers and/or other third parties.

...and a download/demo is nowhere to be found.

Taken from their products page http://www.apogee.com/products it does sound like it would have been a great thing to have:

CJRE+A - The “CJRE for Android” is suitable for devices running Android v4.x or higher, which need to execute the Java SE 5 and SE 6 applications in addition to executing the Android applications.

We can still dream. I have not contacted them. I am aware of many companies that are looking for this functionality. I can't imagine it will dwindle all too fast (or let's say slower than flash)?

I have not reached out to Apogee, might be worth a try...If anyone ever finds a solution, please keep us updated! Thanks.

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up vote 0 down vote

There is a post entitled "Is there a possibility to run applets on Android or Blackberry" over on Stack Overflow which will provide you more insight, it can be found here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2433338/is-there-a-possibility-to-run-applets-on-android-or-blackberry

I have looked elsewhere however there appears to be no conclusive evidence that java applets are supported.

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protected by Community♦ Dec 7 '11 at 13:48

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