3 replies to this topic

[hafrakaka]

Hey everyone!

Been lurking for a while and decided to post. I want to start a fairly large project that I will spend the next months working on. I want to make a foreign currency exchange program that lets people buy and sell currency. There are a lot of these out there, most of them are application but a few are java applets, and the applet ones are usually not really "pro"-looking at all and look kinda cheap.

I want to make a java applet that looks good and is big. An applet that gives you tools for technical analysis, has lots of charts, up-to-date ticks and a beautiful interface for buy/selling. Now here is my question for the experts. Is it not wise to make this an applet? Im not sure how big it would be (considering load time) but I've been looking at Web Start also, but I would really want to see if I could make this an applet. How large could a program become before its to big to be an applet?

Best regards,
Hafrakaka

[Alexander]

It could certainly be a popout applet so it is not contained within a webpage and thus limited to size restrictions, this applet with its own window space can have any number of GUI elements including standard swing containers for menus of tools analysis and etc.

From your descriptions size would not be what you are looking out for, it would be other things, for example the applet should only be authorized to be downloaded (I mean the actual file not the page that calls it) so no one not authorized can decompile and gain potential information on your authorization scheme, of course that would mean you would need to set up a secure authorization server to work with this, taking it out of the applet itself.

I am certain there are other things you should consider, I am not in the best health to think of many more right now.

[hafrakaka]

Great, thanks for the reply. One thing though, is an applet less safe than an application? or Web Start app?

I had totally neglected thinking about security here :P

[Alexander]

I would argue that it is easier to retrieve the basic source from a Java class file, however this applies to most applications regardless of language. It may be a little harder in a compiled language however.

Regardless of this, as long as you use the applet purely as a client with no code that could be used against your main server if the code was read by the attacker, you should be exactly as safe as a program in another language.